


A Tour of my Heart

by StripesnBooks



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Additional Tags to Be Added, Alternate Universe - Bittybones, Bitty Bones, Fluff, Found Family, Self-Indulgent, im new to this fandom help, stripes gets a bitty, whats a tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-04-23 02:57:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 23,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14323068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StripesnBooks/pseuds/StripesnBooks
Summary: The drabbles of Stripes (OC) getting their first bitty, with maybe more to come!(previously titled stripes bitty drabbles)Studying abroad in Japan, I come across a homeless bitty. I don't know how he got all the way out here, but I can't just leave him to root through the garbage!We start out shaky, but we became good friends, sharing food, a room, laughs, trials, and even anxieties. It started out with me wanting to help him... but he's helped me more than I ever could have imagined.





	1. My Life is a Dumpster Fire

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first entry into the bitty bones au, so i'm excited, but feel free to give me advice or anything, since i've really just gotten into this fandom... but i hope you have fun reading!

Of course I wanted a bitty. Friendship, a companion, someone who could maybe help me with my depression and who I could provide a loving home for. I had it all planned out, just like I had the next few years of my life planned out. Study abroad. Last year of college be a part time student, work two jobs, save money for myself and, if necessary, my friends. Find a job. Become somewhat financially stable, separate from my parents. Cut ties with them. adopt a bitty who needed the extra love I was sure I could provide. It was all planned. Where I was living was a college city, and I already knew several bitty rehab shelters I could visit once I was financially stable. It was gonna be great.

Until I met my Sansy.

I didn’t expect to see a bitty in Hiroshima. I’m sure some had made it to Tokyo, or Osaka, but my calm and peaceful prefecture? I was even more surprised that he seemed to be... feral. I almost missed him, digging through the trash outside the convenience store, but when I saw movement I assumed it was a cat and walked over. But it wasn’t a cat. A dirty bitty popped as I drew closer. He had yet to notice me, and I stared, unsure how to proceed.

“Hello?” I tried.

He spun around, looked me up and down long enough to note that I was obviously a foreigner, and blipped away.

I looked around. He looked hungry. Maybe English was no good? “大丈夫？食べたいですか？ You want me to get you some food? Are you okay?” I waited, practically holding my breath.

After a moment, he popped into existence behind me. “you a tourist?”

I turned to face him, but he just blipped behind me again. Must not be too hungry if he had enough magic to keep doing that. “A student. Exchange student.” This time he was further away, near the trash again. I made no move to go closer, not wanting to startle him. “What about you?”

“world’s first bitty tourist.” He smirked, his strange skull pulling his smile wide, his hands shoved deep into a dirty blue hoodie.

I frowned. “Does the world’s first bitty tourist want a meal, compliments of the world’s first bitty tourist caterer?” had he been separated from his owner while they were on vacation? “If you lost your family, I could help you.”

His smile dropped at that for a split second, just long enough for me to take notice. “wanna buy a guy a ‘dog?”

I smiled. There was one thing I remembered about Sansys. “With extra ketchup?”

“now you’re speaking my language.” He gave me a wink.

“Be right back, then.” I went in and bought the ‘dog on a stick, with extra packets of ketchup. Almost as an after thought, I got a small bottle of water as well. When I came back out, I didn’t see the bitty. “Hey, bitty buddy?” it felt weird calling out to the trash, but I was rewarded by the Sansy returning. He was still keeping his distance, and I didn’t blame him.

“you can just leave it there. Thanks.”

“You... are you sure you’re okay?” I took the items out of the back, and saw his eyes flick to the water bottle. I put the plastic bag on the ground like a picnic blanket, laying the food on top and cracking open the water bottle for him before taking a few steps back. “where’s your family?”

He carefully stepped towards the feast, watching me even while he ate. “don’t you have a class to get to or something?”

He was right. I was close to missing the bus. I hated being late. I had to be perfect for my plan to work. I had to make the plan work to survive. “... I don’t like just leaving you here. I can take you to the police station or something? They’ll probably have a translator if you don’t know Japanese.”

His eyes traveled to my chest as he finished the hot dog. That had been incredibly fast. Do bitties need to chew? “you always this helpful?”

“You look like you were looking for food in the trash. Im guessing your family was on vacation and you got separated. Don’t you wanna find them?”

“tell ya what, kid.” He opened the last pack of ketchup and sucked it dry. “I don’t have a family. So how bout you go on your way, and I’ll make sure this trash finds its way home?” he picked up the ketchup wrappers and the plastic bag and turned away.

I didn’t like the thought of him being out here alone, but it seemed like he wasn’t going to accept my help. I checked my phone. I had missed the bus. “My classes get out around 4:30, so I’ll be back here around five if you want dinner.” He was still walking away but I knew he heard me. I took a few steps forward, but he blipped away. So I decided to go to class.


	2. A Roommate of Convenience

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the Sansy gets to see Stripes dorm! their tiny, tiny, tiny dorm....

I was nervous as I walked back to the convenience store. Or, more specifically, the convenience store’s trash. When I first called out, the little bitty didn’t show up, so I just kind of stood there awkwardly. I had been early, after all. Class had let out early. Of course it started to rain. I sighed and decided to just get dinner there. While I got my usual fare, I looked around for what would be good food for a bitty. Something small or easily cut into pieces... I could split an onigiri with him? that probably wouldn’t work so well. Noodle dish, noodle dish, noodle dish... maybe I could convince him to- no! the dorms I lived in didn’t allow pets! Which is what bitties were currently considered in Japan. I decided to just grab him some bread. If he had complaints, he could come in and pick himself next time.

Next time...

Maybe...

No Stripes, don’t do it, you know it’s a bad idea... but he said he didn’t have a family...

I walked back out, opening my only-slightly-broken umbrella, and returned to our meeting place. He still wasn’t there. I checked my phone and sighed. I had been in there for ten minutes? Maybe he had come while I was getting our food and left, thinking I didn’t show.

“huh. Actually came back.”

I yipped and jumped as the voice came right by my ear, and watched in horror as the Sansy fell off of my back pack. I quickly moved to catch him, but he merely teleported to the ground. “Oh gosh, I am so sorry, you just really startled me are you okay?”

“yikes. Lucky I don’t have ear drums, or you woulda busted ‘em pal.” He rubbed his head as he looked up at me and I looked away sheepishly.

“Sorry... not a fan of being snuck up on.”

He gave a quick ‘hm’. “’s fine. You really gonna buy me dinner? I’m not a cheap date.”

I snorted. “afraid I already bought this for you.” I pulled the bun out of the bag. It was half his size. Maybe... coulda gone with something smaller. I opened the wrapper, but stopped. “Does the rain bother you?”

He stared at me as if trying to read my mind. Maybe he was reading my Soul? Bitties could do that, right? “eh, a bit.”

“If- if you want, we could, uh, eat it back at my place?” Why should I be embarrassed?! He was a homeless bitty, it was just proper manners to invite him somewhere dry!

“sure.”

I blinked. “Really?”

“yeah. Long as you’re not trying to jump my bones, what with buying me dinner and takin’ me back to your place.” He grinned as my face lit up scarlet.

“Of course not! you’re a! I mean! Sheesh!” I tried to contain my embarrassment at his teasing as I offered him my hand to climb onto. He was wet and dirty. It was not a pleasant feeling. But I hauled him carefully up to stomach height, tilting my hand so that if he fell it would be against my jacket rather than the sidewalk. “I’m just... kind of surprised you’d come so easily.”

“I’m just a naturally trusting guy.” I didn’t believe a word of it.

“My dorm is over the bridge but... I’m gonna need you to hide in the bag or my pockets when we go in.” He needed to know.

“why?” suspicion laced his words. Just when we were making progress.

“My dorm doesn’t allow, uh, pets.” I practically hissed the last word out. “I don’t wanna run the risk of getting in trouble or them kicking you out. I know you’re not a pet, it’s just-“

“yeah, I got it kid.” He shifted around on my palm. A small puddle had formed on it, starting to wet my jacket.

“Alright. You can probably see my pockets from where we are, so I’ll tell you when you need to hide, if that’s okay.” He agreed, and he moved when we got to my building. I felt nervous as I greeted the security guard, got in the elevator, passed my neighbors, and finally got to my room. “Okay, we’re here.” I gently reached into the pocket to scoop him up, but drew my hand back sharply with a hiss as something burned my fingers.

“sorry!” the Sansy poked his head out as I set my bags down. “just didn’t expect ya to be reaching around for me.” He looked a bit guilty, so he must have used magic to attack my hand or something. He cringed as I brought my hand back down to him, but I just held it right outside my pocket.

“You wanna climb on, then?” he glanced up at me once before gingerly stepping onto the offered palm. I set my hand down on my desk, and let him step off. Well, now my desk, jacket, and both hands were dirty. I’m not usually a stickler for cleanliness, but I wasn’t about to eat with mud on my hands. “I’m gonna go rinse off my hands. Here,” I handed him a wet napkin that the cashier had supplied me with, “clean yourself off as best you can. If you wanna take off your wet clothes, I’ll see what we can do about them.” the dorm room was tiny. This was Japan, after all. There was a twin sized bed, a full size fridge at its foot, and high shelves on one side of the room. Behind the headboard was a wall that connected to a tiny personal bathroom, just big enough for a toilet, sink, and a bathtub that wasn’t big enough to stretch my legs in. and when I say tiny bathroom, I mean everything is squished together; I could hardly get into the shower without my knees hitting the sink on the way in, and could hardly use the toilet without bumping my arms on the sink or wall. But hey. I didn’t have to share.

After washing up, I returned to see the Sansy without his shirt, jacket or shoes; they were just thrown in a pile on my desk. He seemed to have washed himself somewhat with the wet napkin, and appeared to be trying to scrub his pants with it. this side of the room held my desk and drawers, with a ton of shelving on the wall above, and across from the bathroom sat my closet. Well, it was close enough to a closet anyway. Wardrobe?

“ah, hey, you have anything I could use to dry my clothes?” he looked up at me as I made myself known. I was grateful that he hadn’t seemed to move much, since my laptop and paper homework was right next to him on the desk. And the attached dresser was littered with... stuff. Books, hats, trash... I needed to clean more often.

“You mind if i...?”

“I’m okay, just could use a towel or something.” So he didn’t want me touching his clothes. That was fine, if a bit hurtful. But hey. Respect is important. So I handed him some paper towels while I pulled out our food.

We ate in silence, and I tried not to stare too much. Probably failed on that one. Meanwhile, he was looking all over the room, taking in the layout, the stuffed animals on my bed, the fridge, the snacks staked on top of it... until he spoke. “this is a nice place. These are student dorms?”

“Yeah. Besides the size factor, its almost better than my apartment back in America.” I could practically see his light up as he filed this information away for later. I didn’t mind. I wanted him to trust me at least a little, and any personal information was worth that as far I could see. “I guess because this school doesn’t get a lot fo exchange students, they can afford nicer things for us. I definitely wasn’t expecting a whole fridge in my room. Or a television.”

“that’s a television?” he looked in shock at the screen behind my laptop. “thought it was just another computer monitor or something. You get tv?”

“Yeah, like ten channels. But my Japanese isn’t good enough to get much out of it yet. I watch the kids shows to practice.”

“your window is huge.” He indicated the floor length curtains that covered most of the back wall of the room.

“Oh! It’s actually sliding glass doors that lead to the balcony!” I stood up, wiping fried chicken crumble onto my pants, and pulled back the curtains to reveal a mediocre view on the street. The doors were cracked open for airflow, with a screen door to keep out bugs. The air conditioning unit wasn’t worth much after winter passed. “It’s really pretty at night.”

Suddenly he was gone from the desk, on the floor in front of me, hauling the screen door back to be out on the balcony.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, watcha doing?”

“we’re on the, what, fourth floor?”

“Oh.” Had he been feeling trapped? “The sixth, actually. But if you- if you ever want to leave, just tell me. Its probably safer than climbing down from there.” He gave me that searching look again.

“if?”

I couldn’t look at him. I was blushing again. “You could stay here, if you want. I mean, it’d be complicated, and I’ll still take you somewhere if you have another place to go? But... I mean, you could be my roommate. Help me clean or something, and you can use my laptop and we can get you some things or-“

“hey.” He had teleported back onto my desk at some point. “that sounds pretty cool.” He gave me a hopeful smile. “being your roommate. So, what’s my new roomie’s name?”

I smiled, on the verge of tears. Very happy tears. I didn’t understand why. I was deviating from the plan. I should be more worried. “Stripes. Or Stripe. You got a name, tourist?”

“How about Tour?”


	3. A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Messiness Go Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tour learns a little more about his new roommate.

Despite it being a name he chose, it seemed to take Tour a while to get used to being called that. I made sure to tell him he could change it if he ever wanted, but didn’t push it. the first days were pretty calm; he even let me wash his clothes properly. We picked one of the cubbies above my desk to be his room, but it didn’t have much at first. Some washcloths and one of my shirts gave him a sort of nest, and some small boxes made furniture until we could go properly shopping. I also left my Nintendo ds lite in his room, with a few games from my collection, and a few action figures. The latter he took almost no interest in, and after a short talk involving a lot of shrugging, there was just the video games. When I went to class, I would put my laptop in tablet mode for him, and made sure there were snacks and the tv remote easily available. In return, I would sometimes come home to find things marginally cleaner. Sometimes the clothes on the floor somehow found themselves in the laundry basket. The trash from my desk would be mysteriously missing. Once when I was gone most of the day, the next morning I opened my drawer to find all the shirts had been folded. When asked, he claimed there must be some magical cleaning sprite, and that he had been goofing off all day. But we both knew.

Suddenly, almost a whole week had flown by. It was a Sunday and we were watching YouTube together when I clapped a hand to my face. “Forgot my morning meds!”

“morning what?” he watched as I pulled out a tin and dumped out several blister packs of various medicines. His eyes widened in fear and, maybe worry? He kept watching as I pulled out my mostly-empty weekly pill container and began divvying out my medicines for the week. “that’s... stripes, that’s a lot of drugs.”

I heaved a heavy sigh. My voice might have come out a bit softer than normal, but that cannot be proved. “Yeah. It is.”

He must have seen that some of the sections on my pill container still contained a few tablets. “how come some aren’t empty?”

“I forgot those days. And doubling up after isn’t... encouraged.” I finished up, setting aside my morning pills for today. There were four medicines. The full compartments held nine pills each. I knocked back my four morning pills with a gulp of apple juice.

“stripes.” Tour’s voice was serious, and when I looked at him one eye was glowing a bit brighter than the other. “what are all these medicines for?”

Was he worried? That’s sweet of him. “Well,” I started, “this one is for menstrual pain, one daily. This is for depression, two twice a day. This is for my legs, once daily, and this is too, one three times a day.”

He looked at my legs and, seeming to find them normal, looked up at me in confusion. “what’s wrong with your legs?”

I let out a bark of laughter. “Isn’t that the million dollar question? Doctor’s don’t know. Sometimes they just stop working, and sometimes they just hurt. No apparent reason. No diagnoses. Just medication that somehow helps me walk.” I glanced at him sadly and saw his mild horror. “I was in a wheelchair for a couple years, til we found the best medicines. You notice the cane on the coat hook? I use it on bad days.”

“damn, I’m- stars, stripes,” he looked at me as I giggled, confused before realization dawned. “heh, stars an’ stripes, gonna be my new favorite interjection. but really, I didn’t realize you’d been through that kid.”

“I’m in college, drop the ‘kid’ shit already, Tour.” I nudged him gently with my finger before returning the extra medicine to the tin.

“you’ve been missing leg and depression medicine.” He seemed thoughtful, and his face was dark. “how bad is your depression, stripe?”

I sighed. “You wanna get personal? I don’t mind the interrogation, but I’ve got some questions for you too. Like why I found you in the trash.” He stiffened. “I can’t make you talk. But I hope you’ll open up to me eventually.”

He stopped asking questions and we went back to watching YouTube. I cleaned off the top of the drawers, finally, and set out some of my books for him to read if he wanted. We continued like the conversation had never happened, until we were finishing up dinner.

“hey, stripes, don’t forget your meds.”


	4. A Short Tour of a Bitty's Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From Tour's perspective! from now on, all bolded text will be from Tour's point of view.

**i didn’t mind it too much when she left. she was rarely gone long. although, I admit it was a little frustrating being stuck in her dorm room all the time. sure, there were plenty of distractions (athough mostly I just looked for new nap spots: the laundry was best, though the bed wasn’t bad. ‘course when she’s up for it napping on stripes is the most comfortable). there was also the laptop, the games, exploring all her stuff, and studying. i'm helping her study japanese, and maybe was a little bit better at it than her already. or im just getting ahead of myself. but sometimes I just wanted to go outside. we went to go shopping only twice since I’ve been staying here. once to get groceries, and once back to the convenience store when she was too tired to microwave her lunch (i haven’t been to the kitchen yet, since the risk of being seen is too high, so im still not convinced all her food isn’t microwaved. not that I judge her for it). riding in the bike basket was... maybe a bit too exciting. from now on im sticking to pockets when she's on that thing. but I’m pretty sure she has social anxiety, so when I need to go out I just chill on the balcony, napping in the sun.**

 

**i’ll admit to looking through the stuff on her laptop. she never told me not to, and while i liked the human well enough, could never be too careful. one of her few requests in using the laptop was to leave open her tabs, and maybe i was a little happy to see all the sites with bitty tips and information up. her search history didn’t give me anything to worry about either, which was a relief. some of her personal files were interesting. lots of stories, some patterns for knitting? her resumes needed work. my hand hovered over a folder titled THE PLAN. that... sounded ominous. what plan? i opened it up. there were only a few documents, all clearly labeled. finance spreadsheets, one document titled ‘resources’, and one document titled, again, THE PLAN. in we go. it didn’t all make sense to me as I read it, but it appeared to be a five year plan, interspersed with her typing to herself. the sentence would read something like: ‘with two jobs refer to finance spreadsheet for potential loan repayment but don’t take more than two jobs stripes we cant handle this we’re not gonna do it again, okay good’. rambling. the plan itself seemed to have several variations, and i gave up looking at it for the moment. the most important thing was that it had a section talking about the part of the plan that involved becoming financially stable enough to get a rescue bitty, with a list of preferred types that included sansy. that was good enough for me.**

 

**sometimes when she’s out for too long, she’s really quiet when she comes back. i’ll ask if she wants to nap together, and the answer is usually yes. the first time we took a nap together, she warned me she might toss and turn in her sleep. i told her i could handle it. she laid on her back and i just crawled up on her chest, near her heart. it was beating really fast. heh. must be my natural charm. she asked if she could pet me, so I told her go ahead. she was so gentle, like I was made of glass instead of bone. i fell asleep to her stroking my spine. when I woke up, she was still asleep and had hardly moved. i... might be working up the courage to ask to sleep in her bed at night, instead of my blanket pile.**

 

**i get the feeling she used to talk to herself a lot. i catch her doing it sometimes, under her breath. its's almost all harmless stuff, and kind of funny. usually it’s her singing softly. she gets embarassed, but i think i can get her to open up more around me. but sometimes she says bad things. not my business to share them, but... i watch her more carefully on those days. im not worried about her hurting me or anything. i just get a little worried about her.**

 

**eating together varies. a lot. for a few days, she seemed to be trying to make food to impress me, with a different dinner every day that she (probably) cooked herself. spaghetti, curry, tiny onigiri... now it was mostly leftover curry or ramen. sometimes she brings back meals from the sales section of the nearby supermarket. when I asked about her eating habits before me, it sounded like she ate the same thing everyday, just because it was cheaper! i don’t want her to worry about money, but i also want her to eat healthy, so I’ve been trying to help find cheap simple recipes while she’s in class. sheesh, who’s taking care of who here? no. i can’t think like that. i’m not her bitty, we’re roommates.**

 

**maybe... maybe I can work up the courage to change that. If she’s up for having a bitty.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you curious, a lot of what happens in future chapters is based on my experience as an exchange student in Japan. including my tiny, tiny, tiny bathroom..........
> 
> I'm also considering switching to third person view again? I dunno, gonna see how it goes.


	5. Word of the Day: Kaimono means Shopping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shopping is stressful!

“You’re sure you don’t need, like, a harness or something?”

 

Tour raised a brow bone. “I think I’m capable of staying on your shoulder without any complicated equipment.”

 

“I could at least wear a scarf or something.”

 

“fine, if it makes you feel better, wear a scarf.” Tour shrugged.

 

“Am I overreacting? I mean, we’re not going out for groceries, we might be out for hours.” This time the raised brow bone was amused. “Fine! I’ll trust you.”

 

“this isn’t my first time shopping with you. i think i know whats... in store.” Okay, I giggled at that one. “so what are today’s pocket options?”

 

“You say that like I have more than two jackets.”

 

We were finally going shopping for bitty supplies. Well. We were actually shopping for doll supplies, since they didn’t sell bitty supplies anywhere I could find in Hiroshima. I told him after we went shopping today we could check amazon for whatever he needed that we couldn’t find. I felt kind of bad, basically giving him rags to sleep on and no real furniture, and he didn’t have any spare clothes... what kind of friend lets their bit- roommate have only one set of clothes? A terrible one. He never complained, but I still wanted to do better for him. I wanted him to like me. To trust me. To tell me what happened. To maybe let me pet him some more? I mean, maybe he would if I just asked, but it felt weird so I had been avoiding the subject except when we napped together...

 

“stripes! we going or what?”

 

“Sorry Tour! Got caught up in my thoughts.” I quickly grabbed my bag and the scarf while he climbed into the jacket pocket. He seemed to prefer teleporting to me handling him.

 

“i know your head is always in the clouds, but it doesn’t mean you gotta be an airhead.” I rolled my eyes but my smile made him smile.

 

He stayed in the pocket while I biked to the location. It was strange, not having my headphones in to drown out the world. But I needed to be alert in case Tour needed anything. I didn’t want to risk there being some sort of emergency that I couldn’t hear over my music. So many little habits like that had changed since we started living together. Pulling up to the store, I checked for cops before parking my bike out front. Bike parking in Japan was just weird. There were no parking zones in front of busier stores like this one, but if you were caught they just stapled a piece of paper to your bike handle that said ‘please don’t do that’. Japan was wild. Without further ado, Tour was given permission to move to my shoulder and we stepped into the giant second hand store.

 

“you sure this is the right place? looks like a bookstore.” I didn’t blame him for thinking that. Spread before us were shelves and shelves of books, collector’s cards (mostly yugioh? People still played that?), cds, video games....

 

“Actually, if you want we can look at the books and video games before we leave. It’s all in Japanese of course, but somebody seems to be studying my textbooks.” I tilted my head to tap him affectionately, and he just shot me a lazy grin and shrugged.

 

“nah, I’m good on entertainment with you around.” He poked my cheek and I fought a smile. It was so good to have a friend around. One who spoke English, no less!

 

“ば～か。でも、時々いっしょうに宿題をできますか？“ (stupid. But, maybe we can do homework together sometime?) I loved having someone to speak English with, but I should probably practice more. “If you wanna.”

 

“only caught the first half stripes. what’s shukudai o dekimasu?”

 

“I was asking if you wanted to try doing my homework, shukudai, together.” I easily wove through the other patrons, grabbing a shopping basket. I knew the layout of this store pretty well after my first semester in Japan. Pausing to glance att he figurine section, I pushed back to the doll area.

 

“don’t see why not. this is the doll section? huh. small furniture, small houses, and even the selection is miniature.” He was less than impressed. I didn’t blame him; the plastic furniture would be a good fit, but most of the items weren’t very useful. Plastic pans, fake food, and thick itchy looking clothing.

 

“I know, but we’re gonna go to a couple other places and then I told you we can get whatever you want from amazon. But we can at least get you some furniture and dishes. Think those tiny forks would actually be usable?” while we talked, I was trying not to lean over too much. He was tucked into my scarf, and I had worn large hoop earrings for him to hold onto (after multiple reassurances that it wasn’t painful or uncomfortable), but I still didn’t want him to fall and hurt himself. I was so focused on this that I didn’t notice the crowd we had attracted.

 

Until I felt a tap on my shoulder. I whirled around to see a nervous looking Japanese man, probably about my age. His eyes flicked between Tour and I, before he spoke up. “Esscuse me, can I take, your picture?” his accent was thick, but he seemed pretty excited to see a bitty.

 

I turned to look at my bitty buddy for permission. I should have realized that he would draw attention in a place like this. For all we knew, he was the only bitty in Hiroshima. Well, probably not. But who knew? He gave a little shrug, so I let the man take a selfie with us. He bowed and thanked us profusely, but now I saw other people starting to stare. They stayed a respectful distance, mostly trying to pretend they weren’t as interested as they were, but I was starting to get uncomfortable with all the staring.

 

“...Let’s hurry up.” I mumbled.

 

I threw items into the basket, not even stopping to look at the video game section like I normally would, before paying and moving on to the next store. We mostly visited secondhand stores, before going to toy stores, and finally craft stores. We had found a few new clothes, but most of the doll fabric was uncomfortable or the wrong size. While in the toy stores more people had asked to take pictures of Tour, and he didn’t seem to mind as long as he stayed on your shoulder. He even let one kid touch his skull when she asked. I was actually surprised, since even I didn’t get to pet him much. Not that I was jealous or anything. Just happy that he seemed good with kids. Not jealous at all.

 

“Hey, a bitty!”

 

My head jerked in the direction of this new, non-Japanese voice, to see what appeared to be a family of tourists. Headed right for us. “Ah, yeah.” I gave a weak smile, and Tour gave a lazy wave.

 

The probably-son figure kept staring excitedly. He looked to be in his early teens? “That’s a Sansy, right? Did you get him here?”

 

“Uh, kinda...” His parents and younger brother(?) had followed over, although the father was browsing rather than paying attention to the conversation.

 

“How long are you in Japan for? Are you a tourist as well? I hear getting pets through customs is a hassle.” The mom-figure spoke up, trying to calm her child and smiling politely.

 

“I’m an exchange student, so I’ll be here a few more months...” I had already been outside, interacting with people for hours, and I just wanted to go home and play games. Not get into a conversation with a probably decent tourist family.

 

“Does he help translate?” The older child was still staring, and I wondered if Tour was just as uncomfortable as I was.

 

“We’re learning together.”

 

“Mom it would totally help me to have a bitty to study with! We should get one!” he spun around to his mom. The younger child had wandered off and the father was starting to look uncomfortable.

 

“Maybe when we get home. Let’s just enjoy our vacation, right?” the mom smiled again, this time apologetically.

 

Was it polite to break off conversation yet? Please say yes. “It was nice meeting you-“ I try, but the boy interrupts.

 

“Do you think Sansys are better that Cherries? Or do you think-“

 

This time Tour interrupts. “sorry kid, but this human’s taste in bitties is pretty _garbage_.” I started turning my head to him to protest, but he put a tiny hand to my cheek and continued. “don’t even know why she picked me. at the time i was really _down in the dumps_." The second time, I caught the pun for what it was, and suppressed a giggle. "no fun at all. you’re better off asking a specialist. we gotta get home.”  The mother was able to dissuade her son from further questioning, and we finally escaped back to where my bicycle was parked.

 

“Thanks Tour,” I said as I moved him to the jacket pocket, “I was really getting uncomfortable.”

 

“no problem stripes. could tell you weren’t up for it. looked like you might _litter_ ally puke.”

 

“I get it, you’re the best, now stop it with your _trashy_ puns.” I kept up that contented grin all the way back home.


	6. The First Night (Of Many?)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A brief look at what happened the first night Tour joined Stripes.

“Okay, if you’re gonna stay here we gotta have some rules.” Tour gave me a little nod and started putting his dirty clothes back on. We’d have to at least get them clean sometime. “So I already told you I’m an exchange student from America. These are the dorms for my Japanese college for all the transfer students from around the world. Most of the rules are gonna be to do with the fact that I’m not supposed to have a... roommate.”

 

“a pet.”

 

I cringed. “Or a roommate. Friends are supposed to leave before midnight; there’s a sign out sheet and everything.”

 

“alright, so what do we have to do?” I had a feeling he was still testing me for ulterior motives, but as long as he wasn’t sleeping on the streets, I didn’t mind.

 

“Well for starters, you’re gonna have to stay in my room most of the time. If you wanna go somewhere just let me know, and I can smuggle you in and out.”

 

“I should be fine sticking around as long as there’s something to do.” Tour was somehow almost done with all the food I had given him.

 

“Oh. Okay.” I had been expecting more of a fight, but that was fine. “Um, how much do you need to eat? I’ll make sure to pick up food for you too, but do you have any dietary restrictions?”

 

“pal, I could eat all day. but in regards to needs, I’ll just eat when you eat, and a meal this size is more than enough if I’m eatin three times a day. I’ll eat whatever.”

 

“Hope you like instant ramen...” he chuckled at that. “Um, what else... you’re free to use my laptop when I’m not on it. I have some games you could play too if you want, but we’d have to go through them and figure out which ones I’m okay with you saving over... and we gotta figure out where you’ll sleep. Oh, and I’d appreciate it if you left your shoes off indoors. Where are you from anyway?”

 

He took off his shoes and socks and set them aside next to one of the now many puddles he had made on my desk. “from one of Mama Cry’s factories in Australia. got shipped here later. that laptop is gonna be a little hard to use, you have a tablet or anything?”

 

I used all my willpower to resist asking more about his circumstances from before. “It’s actually a touch screen, so I can switch it to tablet mode for you whenever you want.” I looked between him and the screen, wondering if he’d be able to reach the top. He was only about four inches, and the screen was about twice that. Hopefully magic would help? “If you want, you can try out tablet mode while I clean your-“ I stopped myself and looked at him. closely. I brought my face near to his and sniffed. Ick.

 

“hey, stripes, pal, wassup?” he shifted nervously from foot to foot, and his magic made him blush blue. I had forgotten bitties did that.

 

“It’s not just your clothes. You need a bath too.” He opened his mouth to disagree, but then didn’t. “How about we get you cleaned up, and then you can play on the laptop while I clean your clothes?”

 

“...fine...” he shrugged, but there was a tenseness to his bones.

 

“So, you wanna clean yourself, or should I clean you, or...?”

 

He blushed blue again. “I can do it myself, if you’ve got more of those wet wipes.”

 

“No, we’re gonna get you a washcloth and let you use the sink.” I held out my hands and smiled encouragingly. After a few moments he stepped on, still wearing everything but his shoes, and I took him to my tiny, tiny bathroom.

 

He snorted when we walked in. “I thought that door was a small closet. you didn’t tell me you had a bitty sized bathroom.”

 

“One of the few things I miss about America,” I sighed as I turned on the sink and let the water warm up, setting him on the closed toilet. I plugged the sink and let it reach a few inches deep. “Go ahead and leave your clothes in a pile on the toilet or something. I’m gonna find a spare washcloth.” I easily found a spare washcloth, and a year of the dog face towel I had gotten free at a promotion. It was practically a bitty sized towel, and so cute! Thanks, Japan. When I went back in he was just dipping into the water, little toe bones testing the temperature. I was gonna have to learn bone names, wasn't I. “Hey, I got you a washcloth.”

 

His head jerked up to look at me, and he slipped into the water. I quickly moved to help, but it was really not deep and he popped up immediately, with no visible injuries. “yeesh, if i wasn’t all bone already you’d have scared me outta my skin.” He gave an easy grin and I relaxed.

 

“Sorry! You’re okay though, right?” he nodded and I handed him the washcloth, moving the soap dispenser to the edge of the sink. While I did this, I stared at all his bones, so similar yet different from the human skeleton I was used to seeing. I thought I’d be embarrassed to see him naked, but the lack of... organs soothed my nerves, I guess. “Can you use the soap dispenser and stuff by yourself?”

 

“yeah, i’m good.”

 

“Alright. I’m leaving your towel here, so just let me know when you’re done and I’ll get to work on your clothes.” He gave me a lazy thumbs up and sunk deeper into the water. He must have enjoyed the warm water, since he stayed there for almost an hour. True to my word, I switched the laptop to tablet mode for him when he came out and went to work on his clothes. While they dried I tackled the next issue. “So, I was thinking we could use one of the top cubbies as your room for now, if you’re okay with that? They’re too high for me to reach, but if you can safely teleport there I think it could work.”

 

“sounds good to me.” I held out my hands and held him up near the cubbies so he could pick one. He chuckled. “you don’t have to hold me up high, I can shortcut up here from the desk.” He blipped from my hands into one of the top shelves. “this one is fine.”

 

“Cool. Then come on down and we can find you some furniture!”

 

I promise I didn’t want to learn Japanese because of Pokemon. I swear! ... So maybe I’m a Pokemon fanatic. I opened up two drawers full of Pokemon merchandise, including several toy lines that had simple plastic furniture. Most of it was too small, but we found a bench and table at least. There was a tiny standing pouch with a zipper that was just the right size for a bitty's bag, so he got a bag for some of his things, and I found some small boxes for storage, even though there wasn’t much to store. I encouraged him to take any figurines he might want to play with, and he picked out a few. I ended up pulling out my games for him, strongly encouraging him to try some Pokemon. When we exhausted the toy options, we moved to my scarves and shirts to find something to sleep in. we found a piece of Tupperware that would make a decent bed once we lined it with something soft, so I told him to choose anything from my drawers.

 

“what do you have all this yarn for?” Tour was pointing to the drawer that housed my accessories and some craft supplies.

 

“I knit and crochet. Maybe I’ll be able to make you something later?”

 

“did you make these scarves?” he pulled out the few I had brought with me, and I confirmed that I had made two of them. he looked through my clothes for a little longer before going back to the scarves. “can I use that one?” it was a pink fluffy scarf I had knitted a while ago. One of the first things I made when I got to Japan, which was now just taking up space with winter passed.

 

“Sure.” I gave him a little smile and for some reason, he blushed at that. When we had gone through everything he might need for his room I left him to organize it and finally take my shower. It was later than I liked to shower, since a wet pillow is less than comfortable, but I felt sweaty and I wanted to be clean. As I was stripping I heard a small choked cry and almost tripped on my underwear as I spun around to look at Tour’s cubby. But I couldn’t see anything besides his bench. “Tour? You okay?”

 

“yeah ‘m fine!” he called.

 

I shrugged and took my shower. When I came out I could hear music from one of the games I gave him, so I just told Tour that I would be on the laptop and turn out the lights in about an hour. One hour turned into two, but I finally made myself sleep. Pajamas on, balcony curtains closed, laptop in sleep mode, lights out.

 

“Goodnight, Tour,” I called out tentatively.

 

“night stripes.”

 

I smiled. It was nice having someone to say goodnight to.


	7. Tiny Steps Closer

When I got home from class, I dropped my backpack and crashed face first into my bed. Almost immediately after, I could hear Tour shuffling around on the bed near my head.

“stripes?”

“Uuuuugh.” Was my coherent and dignified response.

He patted my head in sympathy and an unbidden smile made its way to my face at the affectionate action. “rough day of class?”

“Noooo... I’m just duuuuuumb.”

“are not.” he scoffed.

“Okay, I know I’m not dumb,” I propped my head up to face him as he continued petting my head. Tiny hands! I love my friend and their tiny hands! But even tiny hands could not completely rid me of exhaustion. “But I barely have the energy to interact with people for a few hours a day. And on Mondays classes are from 10:30 to 4:30! It’s awful! I have to do so much socializing! So I don’t have the energy for studies!”

“you definitely look bone-tired.”

I rolled my eyes at his pun. “Hey, Tour?”

“yeah?”

“Can I hug you?”

He chuckled. “you can hug me anytime, as long as you warn me first.” He spread his arms open invitingly. Tiny arms!

I moved to sit up against my pillows and scooped him up to my chest, holding him gently against my breastbone. He did his best to hug me back, with how far his tiny arms could reach. “Thanks Tour.” I gave a gentle squeeze. I was still getting a feel for how durable he was. “Back in America, I was a pretty touchy-feely person.”

“really? you seem to avoid touching other people, or even picking me up.”

I balked. “What! I was avoiding it because I wasn’t sure how much you trusted me, and I didn’t wanna smother you. I actually like holding you, it’s comforting somehow.”

“w-well, you can pick me up if you wanna. I don’t mind napping or sitting with you.”

“Welcome to cuddletown. Population: you.” He snorted and I stroked his skull. He let out some sort of purring noise that did wonders for my tension. “Here in Japan, physical contact in public is pretty frowned upon. Plus, I take a while to get used to touching new people. But once I do! You are doomed to cuddletown.”

“oh no. save me.” Tour smirked at me. He had stopped reciprocating the hug, and was now simply curled comfortably in my hands. I leaned back further and moved him to sit on my chest so he could lay there while I looked through my phone notifications.

“I really needed that hug. So thanks, you can move whenever you get bored.”

“this is pretty comfy. Plus, your heartbeat,” his hand moved a little closer to the place above my heart, “is pretty soothing. I could fall asleep here.”

“Feel free to. I’m up for a nap myself... after I play therapist to couple of my friends.” We all played therapist to each other really, until at least one of us could afford a real one. I kept flipping between messaging friends and playing with apps before Tour spoke again.

“anytime you need a hug, you let me know. I am a happy citizen of cuddletown.” He bounced on my chest a bit as I laughed.

“Careful, I’ll take you up on that.”

“dare ya to.”

“You’re getting a hug right now mister!” I brought my hands to squeeze him gently again, and he nuzzled against my skin in return. I relaxed on the squeeze and stroked his spine. “You know...” would this be an okay time to bring it up? “if you want...” I had to do this. The worst case scenario is he doesn’t want to, and that’s sad, but fine. “you can stay with me for as long as you want. Even, when we get back to America, we could find a local shelter and get all your official paperwork done. You don’t have to decide now or anything! There’s still a few months before I go home. You could also stay in Japan if you want. But... it’s an option.”

He sat in stunned silence. “you’d keep me?”

“Only if you wanted!”

He stood up, his little feet pit-patting against my skin as he walked across my chest to gently hug my face. “I’d like that.” I cupped a hand around him, giving yet another squish and containing a very undignified ‘squee’. “maybe this is a good time to ask; can I sleep on the bed with you tonight?”

“As long as you promise to be careful. You’ve seen how I move around in my sleep.”

“can I move this pillow over here?”

“This one is softer. And this corner is probably safest!”

“there are a few candy wrappers hidden under the futon.”

“Sorry! Here I’ll- orrrr, you could magic them to the trash.”

“Why do you have so many stuffed animals?”

“...”

“these are all from that Pokemon game aren’t they? I’m moving them.”

“Tour!”

“whaaat, I can’t move them?”

“I didn’t know you could do magic!”

“oh.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another day, another step closer to each other.
> 
> let me know in the comments if youre enjoying yourself, had a rough day, have questions for stripes or tour, or have something you wanna see happen in this fic! i love hearing from you!
> 
> and in case someone hasn't told you yet today, i love you!


	8. Fateful phone calls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow, it's been a while? at least it feels like it. i've been working on other things like my Homes After the Mountain series. theres a very, very small possibility that this fic might join that universe.

“How much magic can you do!”

“uh, well, monsters aren’t supposed to use magic in public, and some bitty owners can be kinda... um... don’t you have homework we can do?” Tour looked pretty nervous, but I wasn’t letting it go that easily.

“Come on! That’s so cool! And useful! Is that how you’ve been cleaning my room while I’m at school? I was wondering how you moved some of that stuff.”

“well... I keep tellin’ you that i’m not the one cleaning. but I can move small stuff. and you already know about shortcuts I can use to get around.” He was starting to open up more!

“Huh. I never really thought of the blipping-“ he laughed at the term, “as magic. I mean, I know it is, but I thought of it more like... an evolutionary trait to get around or something?”

“maybe it kinda is? not sure how evolution stuff works with bitties, since we’ve only been around a few years, right? it’s one of the few magics we’re not really restricted on.”

“Man, I wish I could use magic... I would never drop my food. Or anything delicate. Or I could teleport home from the store!”

Tour chuckled. “guess it is pretty useful.”

I sighed. I really did have homework to do. “You don’t have any magic that will help me write this essay, do you?” his laughter was answer enough. I dragged myself to the desk and pulled out my special paper for writing essays in kana. I only got halfway through before my phone went off, indicating a new message. Opening it, I groaned.

“forget homework or somethin’?” Tour chuckled.

“Worse. My parents want to set up a video call for this weekend.”

“not a fan of talking to them?”

“Not recently,” I grumbled. “but it’s been a few weeks, so I can’t turn them down without being suspicious.”

“oooh, what are you hiding from them?” he teased, “your secret underground network?”

“Well, besides a certain new bitty friend,” I shot him a playful smile, “I try to keep them in the dark as much as possible. I just don't want to talk about my life sometimes.” I tried so hard not to call him my bitty, because I didn’t own him. Tour wasn’t an object, and while I wouldn’t normally hesitate to call a friend ‘mine’, I was too worried at the implications. It had taken this long to get him to trust me. At least, I thought he trusted me. Hoped. 

“and what do you need?”

My shoulder slumped and I practically spat out, “Money. For food, for school, for electricity, and maybe someday for savings. I hate relying on them, but until my student debt is gone I’m gonna try and get what I can from them. A little harsh, but...”

“oh. no job?”

“I used to have five-“ he choked, “before I came here. I’m gonna look for new ones when I get back to America. But I have high hopes. And I know my parents will never let me starve, even if I’m not doing what they want me to. They love me in their own way.”

“why five jobs?!”

“They had reeeaaaally low hours, and I had to find ones where I didn’t need to use my legs, and I need to pay rent. I don't want to live with my parents again.”

“damn stripes. maybe this lazy bones can find a way to help.” Tour looked a little uncomfortable. 

I tried to reassure him, but no matter how much I talked, he didn’t seem to give up on the idea of somehow contributing financially. I left him to think while finishing up my essay. The theme was ‘things I learned when I came to Japan’. It was too bad I couldn’t just write what I had learned about bitties.

 

It was Saturday, the day of reckoning. I had already gone over the plan with Tour. He just had to stay quiet and out of sight for the duration, and I would try to make it as short as possible. The average calls were an hour, long enough for me to say I was doing well in school, my father to talk excitedly about any new toys he had, and mother to tell me every moderately entertaining event that had taken place since the last call. The last call was two months ago. I was not looking forward to this. I hit the call button.

“Hey girly!” of course mom picked up. Dad was adjusting the camera. “How ya doin’?!”

“I’m okay.” I always gave them that answer. “Studying hard and preparing for coming back in a few months. I’m gonna miss Japan.” But I would have Tour with me, so everything would be fine. It would, in fact, be great. The conversation continues, my parents asking questions and me dodging most of them. sometimes I glanced at Tour’s room, and it looked like he’d been playing a game in there. But I have little doubt that he’s listening intently.

“Have you made any new friends?” Dad asked.

“Nah, I’m a lone wolf,” I try, but I can’t stop smiling thinking about having a bitty in my life. “Actually, do you think you could send me any extra money? The medicine is starting to get expensive.”

“Well sweetie, you know how things are, but we can try.” Of course. Well, times were hard on all of us.

“I’m just trying to save as much as I can. You guys still think you can help with the money I owe?”

“There's still time, are you worried about it already?”

“Yes.”

“Well, we’ll do what we can. We really do want to help you sweetie, we’re just planning things out right now. Oh, did we tell you about our new diet?”

It went on like that. For what felt like forever. So Tour, being the excellent friend he was, tried to make me laugh. He would write puns on sticky notes and post them on the fridge behind the camera. He would act out and make faces whenever they said something that didn't make sense. He would write sarcastic comments and roll his eyes while I tried to hold in giggles.

“Oh, Stripes, the other day we saw someone with one of those small monsters! All the way out here!” Mom said, causing you to perk up.

“Bitties, honey. They’re called bitties.”

“They’re so cute! We might have to get one, since you can’t come home so often. I get lonely when your dad has to work, and I love our dogs, but think of having a little monster who could actually understand us!”

My heart froze. No. mom couldn’t get a bitty. She didn't know anything about them and the bitty wouldn’t get the proper care and the dogs might not even get along and. I was panicking. I had to calm down.

“Aw, mom, you can’t replace me like that!” I had to kick away this idea before it could take root. “Didn’t dad say no more pets after these dogs anyway?” Bitties weren’t pets. They were people. But because of all the unlicensed breeding and lack of regulatory laws on the human end, they were being treated that way. And my parents might treat them that way. “and I mean, it would still be a monster in your house.” Use their fear against them. “They have all that weird magic and you can’t keep them in a kennel at night like you do with the dogs.”

“I’m sure we’ll figure it out sweetie. Oh, did I show you my latest project? You father spoiled me at the arts and crafts store!”

I spent the rest of the conversation wondering what to do if my parents got a bitty.


	9. カレーを作る Making Curry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> karee o tsukuru! Tour and I finally get to use the kitchen together, and we make curry!

“Thanks for helping me carry all this to my room!”

I heard stripes talking to someone, and took that as a cue to hide. Why did she come back when I was in the underwear drawer?! I was only here to fold socks but now she’s gonna see me here and think I’m weird and she won’t bring me to America... okay. Just gotta hide til this guy is gone, and if I focus, I should be able to shortcut to my room. It’s a lot harder when I can’t see where im going, but its still within range so it couldn’t be that bad, right?

I used my magic to slide the drawer shut just as the door cracked open. Dammit, risk the teleportation now or risk her finding me hiding in a pile of socks later? Socks seemed the marginally better choice.

“きたない！“ (messy!) came an unfamiliar male voice. Who was this? She rarely talked about friends at school, and almost never went anywhere with anyone besides me. Who was this guy carrying stuff into her room?

“ひどい！私は忙しい留学生です!” (mean! I’m a busy exchange student!) stripe’s voice came, but there was no ire, just... playfulness. Really, who was this other person? And the room wasn’t even that bad, I had been working on it for hours. Between naps. Long naps.

As they made small talk I found myself wishing I could see them. how close were they standing? What was the body language? Was she smiling at him? was he smiling at her? eventually, they bid goodbye and the door closed. Stripes giggled. What the hell. What had this guy done to make my human not laugh, but giggle like that?

“Tour?”

I shortcutted to the desk, and saw stripes, surrounded by... well, it looked like all of it was food. I quirked a brow bone. “what’s all this then?”

She grinned. “our meals for the next three months. I just got back from the magical world of Costco.”

“there’s a magic place in japan?” I didn’t know that japan had any monsters or magic.

“Well, not real magic, but close enough! It’s a place where I got all this food, enough to last almost until it’s time to go home-“ home “-for less than a hundred dollars!” she looked so proud of herself.

I was so proud of myself. I managed to get enough of almost everything for a balanced diet! I got tons of veggies, a good amount of chicken, some cinnamon rolls, fruit for like a month, and even yogurt! All hail Costco!

“the only real downside is that we gotta portion everything up and freeze most of it for later. But do you know what tomorrow is?” I couldn’t not smile.

Tour seemed amused at my joy, at least. “Saturday?”

“the crane festival, where all the international students will be helping! Except one. One poor student who has weak limbs. Who will have the kitchen all to themselves.” He didn’t seem to understand what I was getting at. “We’re both gonna cook together while no one else is here!”

“heh. I’ll finally get to see the kitchen.” He may not express much, but I could see the excitement in his eyes.

“yeah! You think you can help me chop vegetables and stuff? I don’t know how much magic that takes-“ before I could finish talking, blue smoke appeared around his hand and quickly formed into a sharp, knife-like bone. “Oh.”

“oh.” he grinned. “I think I can help.”

“I’m so excited! Cooking together always brings people closer! Hugs?” he nodded, amused, and let me pick him up and nuzzle him against my cheek.

 

The next day I was practically vibrating with excitement, packing the huge amount of veggies to be prepped into bags, along with all the Tupperware I’d need for the prep work. Tour was wearing his old clothes, since he knew it could be messy business and told me he didn’t want to get the clothes I made him dirty. He had blushed when he said that. I did too. It was nice to know he appreciated the gifts. Not that he needed to tell me for me to give him things! I would keep making him clothes even if he complained! But... it was nice to be told that he was happy.

It was almost spooky how empty the whole dormitory was as we made our way to the elevator and down to the kitchen. Tour shifted nervously on my shoulder. I guess he felt exposed, riding there inside of a building where he wasn’t really allowed. However, we reached the kitchen without event, and he blipped down to the table as I began to set out the newspaper to cover the table. I turned on some music on my phone and brought out all the veggies to be prepared. It almost covered the huge island in the kitchen.

“so, uh,” Tour eyed the extensive spread, “where do we start?”

“Potatoes.” I brought the spuds to the sink to be washed. “I’ll wash and chop them, could you portion the pieces into those pieces of Tupperware?”

“on it, boss,” he saluted me and began getting the containers efficiently set out. “so, judging by the ingredients, we’ll be having curry for a while?”

“Well, we can mix it up with fried rice or oyster sauce chicken. But yeah. We’ll be eating a lot of curry.” He sighed, disappointed in the lack of greasier foods. “But, this is just for now! And we’ll have other foods in between! We could even grab some mos burgers next time we go out!” I tried to cheer him up. He’d get plenty of junk food once we got back to America, anyways. I felt a bit giddy at the thought. I’d be bringing a friend back to America with me! Maybe illegally. I’d need to check what it would take to get him on the plane with me. Maybe it’d surprise me and be super easy?

We worked well together, laughing and singing along to music as i set my phone’s music library to shuffle. Tour slipped and fell in a puddle of carrot juice. When i laughed at him, he retaliated by playfully throwing the inedible carrot tops at me until i apologized between fits of laughter. When we were done, i went ahead and started cooking one portion into curry, adding the rue blocks, vegetables, a scoop of marmalade and ketchup, and experimenting with spices. I put some ketchup aside on a plate for Tour to snack on while it cooked. It smelled pretty darn good, if i do say so myself. Tour helped move dishes to the sink while a stirred and cleaned the area, looking tired but overall satisfied. Come to think of it…

“Hey, Tour?”

“yeah?”

“I think this is the most i’ve ever seen you move around and do stuff.”

He paused. “huh. guess so. it just… didn’t feel like work when we were doing it together, i guess?” he smiled at me sheepishly.

I grinned back, scooping him up for a hug and giving his skull a little kiss. When i set him back down, his face was very blue. “Thanks Tour. I’m… really glad I met you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops, been a while since I updated this. since it doesn't really have a story plan, there's no real update schedule planned, but i'll try to get at least one out a month. But I hope you guys will continue to enjoy this!
> 
> if you're looking for something a little more action-oriented, check out my homes after the mountain series, especially The Itch, a reader insert about a gang member and her growing group of skeletal friends (who dont know shes a gang member)


	10. Confessions Over Dinner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hm, i wonder what we'll learn today...
> 
> buy Tour a hot dog!  
> https://ko-fi.com/stripesnbooks

Exams. Exams sucked. But now they were over, and i had tuesday and wednesday to lay around with Tour doing absolutely nothing. Heck yeah. Tour was splayed out on my chest with a pillow to prop him up so he could watch youtube with me. My laptop laid on my thighs and was autoplaying lets plays of some of my favorite youtubers.

 

“Switch to anime okay?” i asked.

 

“do itttt,” he happily encouraged.

 

These days were the best. The past month or so we had really gotten used to living together, and i hadn’t realized how much i missed having company until Tour came into my life. From what I could tell he seemed equally pleased with the arrangement. We spent a lot of time just hanging out, talking about games or shows, and sometimes going shopping together or playing card games. Tour’s Japanese improved way faster than mine, and while i was jealous I was also happy that we could share that passion. We also talked a little bit about what to do when we got back. I lived and went to college in a city that was actually only a few hours away from Ebott itself, so we’d definitely be able to get real bitty things. The airplane affairs were way simpler than i imagined as well, since he didn’t take up much space i was simply required to keep any bitties in a carrier with carry on luggage during the flight. I hated treating him like a pet, but he assured me that it was fine this way, and we were less likely to get into trouble.

 

Two more months. Then we’ll be back to my home and Tour can go around wherever he wants. He can come with me everywhere, if he’s up for it! Tour falls asleep after a couple episodes, and I smile at him as the credits roll. Hm… with him asleep… I open a new tab and search for Mama Cry’s bitty centers. A number of results pop up and I look for any in Australia, remembering what Tour said. Apparently, there’s only one facility there that falls under the large umbrella of places founded by or in honor of Mama Cry. My eyes narrow as I scrolled through the site, and I came to several conclusions. With a little more googling, I became even more set in what I’ve learned, but decide to wait until Tour wakes up, and ask him about it directly.

 

“Don’t know why i’m surprised,” i mumbled to myself. People always did this kind of stuff. It almost happened when the monster first came out, about eight years ago now. There was a long time when they weren’t even allowed off the mountain, and they came close to being treated like animals. Now bitties faced the same kind of thing. It suuuuucked! Closing the research tabs, i went to play on social media, unwilling to change positions with Tour sleeping so comfortably. He’d probably snooze through anything i did, but still. I would feel bad. With a ding, i saw a new message from one of my Japanese friends.

 

Koharu: Is that a real bitty?! (1 image attached)

 

Oh. it was a picture of me and Tour, while we were out shopping.

 

Koharu: he is so cute!

Koharu: can you bring him to school?? 

Koharu: can i pet him? I heard that some will bite me.

 

Oooh, this is bad. This cannot get back to the teachers.

 

Stripes: it’s just a toy

Stripes: because i thought they were cute

 

Lying isn’t my favorite thing in the world, but it was better than Tour getting into trouble. Luckily, Koharu readily accepts the excuse and you worry about bringing ‘your toy’ to school, since it could be damaged. She says she got the picture off of someone’s blog, but you don’t worry about that too much. There’s not a big chance anyone important will see it.

 

I waited for as long as i could, but it was dinnertime and i was hungry. I scooped up Tour and set him on a pillow as he kept snoring, and put my laptop aside for now. I could microwave some of the spaghetti we made the other day and be back up in no time. I scooped plenty into a bowl and write a quick note on a post it so Tour would know to set up for dinner if he woke, and made my way to the elevator. Not having anywhere to go, i was still in my pajamas when i reached the kitchen, greeting a couple of the students from China who were making their own dinner.

 

“ね、どしてくつがない？” (why don’t you have shoes?) one of them asked.

 

They always seemed to find it strange that i would leave my room and come to the kitchen without shoes or house slippers. This was probably the fifth person to ask that since I came to Japan. “そとじゃないので、くつはひつようじゃない,” (it’s not outside, so shoes aren’t necessary) i explained again, amused that they found this so surprising. 

 

Little cultural differences like that were always interesting to note when they popped up. They shook their heads in disbelief as my noodles finished warming up, and i returned to my room. Tour had already set up his little dining area on the desk, and i carefully portioned out some spaghetti for him into his bowl. The bowl wasn’t really proportioned the same way as the rest of the furniture, because man, bitties could  _ eat _ . He happily dug in as i let mine cool a few seconds more, and we put on a couple music videos in the meantime.

 

“Hey, Tour? I was doing some research, and Mama Cry doesn’t have any factories in Australia. In fact, she doesn’t have any factories, and only runs adoption centers and sells bitty supplies.” He looked up, noodles hanging from his mouth and confusion in his eyes. Well, eye sockets. “Furthermore, they dont ever ‘ship out’ bitties; they have proper paperwork and insist on meeting potential adopters.”

 

He slurped up and swallowed his noodles. “but... they told us…” his voice is quiet, unsure.

 

“Tour,” I tried gently, “I think you came from an illegal bitty breeder.” i pulled up the website to show him. It said it was a center that produced bitties for the Cry and associated facilities, but it lacked their trademark, and the site itself was pretty sketchy. “If you could look at some pictures, and confirm, i want to report them. And… if you’re up for it… i do want to know what happened to you.”

 

He abandoned his tiny dining table, and used his magic to scroll through pictures on the website. “i... i recognise a lot of these workers. I think this is… the factory i came from. i didn’t… i didnt even know…”

 

“Tour, it’s okay.” shit, he was crying. I gently scooped him up and held him near my heart in a gentle hug, hoping the rhythm of my heartbeat might help to settle him. It appeared to work a bit, and his small phalanges curled into my pajama shirt. “That was all i needed. You don’t need to tell me anything else, or do anything if you’re not up for it. Here, i got some ice cream yesterday.” i pulled out the treat and some spoons in our respective sizes, waiting for him to calm down. I switched tabs back to the far might lighthearted youtube page.

  
“no…” he whispered. “i think… i think i’m ready to  _ patella  _ you what happened. even if it was… heh… a bad time.” he let go of my shirt to get to the ice cream, but one hand firmly gripped my finger. I didn’t mind. I’d give him any kind of support i could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> two more months until i return to America! i really miss my friends. 
> 
> next chapter: an origin story!
> 
> help stripes pay for a plane ticket:  
> https://ko-fi.com/stripesnbooks


	11. さびしい - Sad, Lonely

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tour tells us his past.

**So, the factory. It wasn’t a bad place, all in all. But it wasn’t great either. We got clothes, got our three meals a day, a roof over our heads. It was a sans factory, so there were the sansys, edgys, cherries, and baby blues. We slept in different places, but most of the time was spent in a mutual ‘play area’, which is also where we ate. It was run by a few humans and a couple monsters, but mostly we were unsupervised. It was rough, and a lot of us sansys and the baby blues tried to keep things organized, watch after the cherries and make sure the edgys didn’t get out of hand.**

 

**But sometimes things slipped through the cracks, like when a baby blue was bullying a cherry so much they dusted, or we didn’t notice an edgy’s depression until it was too late. If you got sick, you were taken away, but we never saw them come back. Now i can only guess what happened.**

 

**I don’t really remember where they kept the baby bones, or how they were treated. But i never knew anywhere outside the factory. Our education was lax, but we were taught that our new ‘owners’ would always make sure we were happy as long as we did what they wanted. Other than that, there were just the books in our library area, and the television that the edgys and baby blues always fought over.**

 

**Whenever adoption was brought up, they’d call out one breed and take the oldest away to their new family. We never met them, but everyone was waiting for their number to be called. We all wanted out of the factory, we all wanted what was in the books and on the shows. And all we had to do was keep our owners happy, right? Then they’d feed us ketchup, or tacos, or burgers or whatever it was that was rumored to taste best to our breed.**

 

**And one day, my number was called. I was ecstatic, but worried. Like i said, the sansys mostly ran things, and i was the oldest, so i was in charge of everyone else. Instead of running up to be taken out, i found thirty-seven, a sansy i trusted.**

 

**“Thirty-seven, looks like you’ll be in charge from here on out,” i said, as they kept calling my number.**

 

**“Come on now pal, ya can’t just leave me like this,” he complained. But i had to. We both knew it.**

 

**“Don’t forget its best to pair new cherries with older edgys. Make sure the blues don’t get out of hand. Don’t go gettting any delusions of grandeur, yourself.”**

 

**“Heh. ‘course not.”**

 

**That was all i got to say before a hand grabbed me and pulled me out.**

  
  
  


“And then they just shipped you out?” my voice was a whisper. Hearing the kind of conditions they lived in made me angry, and i couldn’t stop myself from typing up a report while Tour spoke. He knew i had trouble listening without doing something with my hands, and took no offense to my multitasking.

 

**Not exactly. Had to go through some… conditioning first. And i saw a lot of the factory that i had never seen before. First they took me into some kind of storage area, where i got cleaned up, all my bones re-bleached, and new clothes. It would have been nice if they weren’t so rough. Whenever i complained, they apologized, but mostly didn’t change. They wouldn’t let me bathe by myself, and the bleach treatment was stronger than it should have been. There were a few others also being prepared, and we got to talk a little bit in between things. Turns out everyone had mostly the same complaints, but they were too excited to be adopted to care. All except one. This edgy bitty, he kept complaining that his bones hurt after the bath. Said he felt weak. He got taken away while the rest of us got new clothes.**

 

**They gave us whatever the new owners had chosen for us to wear, but we were just excited to be adopted. Hell, i acted all casual, and i worried about the guys i left behind, but who doesn’t like hearing they’re wanted? The workers would chat with us during all this, telling us how the new owners would love us, buy us fancy foods, and show us the world. As long as we behaved. They threw it out so casually that none of us really took notice at the time. It was just common sense that we would do everything we could to make our new owners happy. They were brainwashing us from the day we were born.**

 

**They brought us into an office and started explaining to us the shipping process. It was just me and a baby blue, the others were getting picked up. Told us we’d be shipped overnight, and it might get bumpy, but we had to be really quiet and not complain, or we would get in trouble and be punished.**

 

**“But what if we get hurt?” the blue asked.**

 

**“Like we said,” they explained again, “it’s just overnight, so if you get hurt, tough it out until your owners can take care of you. But it’ll be fine, no one ever gets hurt in these kind of things.”**

 

**“Don’t be so a-** **_freight_ ** **, kid. I’m** **_shore_ ** **the** **_ship_ ** **ping will be totally fine,” i said. The blue got upset at my puns, but he seemed to calm down afterwards.**

 

**The worker left to go get something ready, and the two of us just kinda sat around, chatting. But then we heard something. Sounded like someone in pain.**

 

**“We have to go help them!” the blue said. I tried telling him to wait, tell the worker and they’d take care of it, but he wouldn’t listen. Hopped off the table and found a vent on the floor. “I’m going, whether you help me or not! A magnificent Blue like myself can’t just leave behind someone in trouble!”**

 

**I guess i didn’t get it through my thick skull that i’m not in charge of watching the other bitties anymore, because i couldn’t help but follow. I didn’t even think about the consequences, i just didn’t want to let the blue go alone into a potentially dangerous situation. I called to the kid to come back as we went through the vents, but he insisted we keep going until we find whoever was in trouble.**

 

Tour paused for a few minutes, idly taking tiny bites of ice cream. I waited for him to continue, eating another spoonful myself, but grew a bit impatient.

 

“... what happened?” i asked quietly. “I mean, you don’t have to keep going if you don’t want to, but-”

 

“no.” he looked at me, and his sockets were void of any life. But he didn’t look angry, or upset, really, just… sad. “someone has to know.”

 

**No one really knows exactly where bitties came from in the first place, but they sure as hell know how to make more of us.**

 

**The noises led us to the breeding rooms. There were… stars, there were so many bitties in these clear tanks, no privacy, and… and i could see the notes next to all the cages, saying what traits they were trying to** **_breed into the new bitties_ ** **, and when their last** **_dosages_ ** **were. I think… i think they were inducing synthetic heats. A lot of those guys… they didn’t look good. The baby blue was horrified, so i just yanked him back the way we came. He didn’t say anything, even when the worker asked us why we came out of the vents. I made up some lie about the blue dropping his scarf, and it was enough. We were put in these magic-proof cages, and finally, in these dark boxes, we were shipped out.**

 

**I was asleep most of the time. Might as well take a nap with nothing else to do, right? It wasn’t exactly the most comfortable ride, but i followed their instructions to stay quiet. Then i reached my new owner. And he made it very clear that he was an owner. Seemed like he wanted a toy rather than a living creature. He only spoke some english, and only gave me the bare minimum of food and water. Heh. he fed me actual dog food. Never talked or played with me much. Kept me in a cage when he went out, which was often. I could get out, but if he found me outside when he got back he was… angry. And then… well… uh, you know how bitties have heats? He, um, didn’t seem to know about that. And, well, he didn’t want to deal with it when it came up. Which is fine, but, he didn’t want me to do anything about it either. And, well, heats can be pretty uncomfortable if you don’t, you know….**

 

He was getting all flustered and blue in the face talking about it, and while cute, I decided to pick it up for him. “Yeah, i know. So what, he saw you… taking care of yourself and threw you out?”

 

“actually…” Tour’s face darkened. “i saw him looking up ways to… prevent bitties from having heats. Different medicines and… procedures. don’t think any were even real. they all looked bogus to me. but when he tried to get me to take… something, i booked it outta there.” he looked up at me, still blushing, but for a split second i could have sworn his eye-lights changed to hearts. “... and then you found me.”

 

And then he found me.

 

I scooped him up, pulling him into a tight hug. “Thank you for telling me, even if it was hard. Let’s take it easy the next couple days, yeah?”

 

“yeah.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> maybe buy Tour and I a coffee?  
> https://ko-fi.com/stripesnbooks
> 
> so, you may have noticed that i added in a number for how many chapters there's gonna be. i have a loose plan of what's gonna happen with Tour and I, and then the story will end. probably not forever, though! i plan on eventually making a sequel after these characters get back to the states.  
> but for now, I really want to focus on my Homes After the Mountain multiverse, an AU wherein many AUs collide. why do these different timelines keep coming out of the mountain? how will these 'clans' get along with each other, not to mention the humans of the world? how will the frisks handle this run?  
> So far the 2 main stories are embassy Exploits, short tales of life in the Clan's royal families and the Royals labs, and The Itch, a reverse harem where a gangster girl hides her criminal activities from some meddlesome and sometimes protective skeletons. i hope to add a bitty story soon after i finish this one. Check it out! i love you either way!


	12. なまえをえらぶ - To Choose a Name

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tour chooses a name and goes on a trip.

After reporting the factory, i was put in contact with a representative of Cry’s Associated Adoption Centers. We talked back and forth via e-mail about what happened with Tour and the other bitties there. Tour knew what i was doing, but he never asked about it so i kept the topic to a minimum.

 

We decided that weekend was for napping and Netflix, and ended up watching a lot of documentaries. They weren’t my favorite genre, but i wasn’t the focus of that mini-vacation. And it was worth it to hear Tour prattle on excitedly about new topics, asking occasional questions of basic things the shows didn’t cover, like the different between an amphibian and a reptile, or other little bits of information he never got to learn. He was just so happy to learn that it was adorable. I ended up giving him enough snuggles and kisses to turn his little skull blue. But he was smiling, a genuine smile, so i didn’t stop.

 

“Tour!” i called out as I opened the latest e-mail from the CAAC rep. He short-cutted next to the laptop. “We got all your paperwork done, except for one thing.”

 

He stared in shock. “you... were working on the paperwork to adopt me already? i thought we were going to do that when we got back.”

 

I blushed, hoping i hadn’t insulted him by working on it alone until now. “Sorry, i thought i could surprise you when they said we could go ahead and start it, since you already agreed to live with me…”

 

“no, no, i’m happy! really happy!” i looked down and he was staring at the screen, scrolling through the paragraphs. “just surprised it was so fast!”

 

I released a breath i didn’t know i was holding, my own grin threatening to split my face in half. “Thank goodness. So, the last field to fill in is… here.” i scrolled down, to where it requested a last name. “A lot of bitties use their hometown, the name of the center they came from, or… they sometimes take their human’s last name.” i fidgeted nervously, staring at the keyboard instead of at the tiny skeleton. “I was wondering if… if you want… you want to use my last name? Books?”

 

They keys of the keyboard glowed blue as he typed it in. T-O-U-R B-O-O-K-S. He crawled onto the keyboard and layed down across it, forcing me to look at him. “stripes and tour books. weirdest library ever.”

 

I snorted. “More like coolest library ever. Don’t make fun of my name, dork.”

 

“our name.”

 

Our name. I liked the sound of that. Who knew i’d be growing my own little family so soon? And with just a few more weeks until the flight home. It was so close. I sent out the application and went through my e-mail for anything else that looked important while Tour tried to distract me by rolling around on the keyboard. I eventually picked him up and placed him gently on top of my head. “Bitty hat!”

 

“you’re such a weirdo, stripes.”

 

“I take that as a compliment.” okay, that was a new e-mail, and all in japanese. From the exchange student center, maybe? There was too much kanji to read, so i pasted the body into google translate as Tour blipped off my head, presumably to his room. It wouldn’t be perfect, but at least it was a quick and easy solution.

 

Hello. You have my bitty i think. Return him. 

 

Oh. oh boy. Okay. this is fine. This is fine, just breathe. We can handle this, he bought Tour illegally so he couldn’t take him. But how did he get my e-mail? I checked my facebook and found a message there as well. I must have left my e-mail on one of my social media accounts. I clicked to his facebook profile and found myself looking at a well dressed businessman. I worked my way through all the kanji and unfamiliar vocabulary in his profile to learn he was a manager of some company, single, and with money to throw around, if all these pictures were any indication.

 

Okay, cool.

 

Don’t panic.

 

“stripes, what’s wrong? You don't look so good,” Tour said, looking out at me from his cubbyhole.

 

Fuck, i’m panicking. “Nothing!” i called out non-suspiciously as i minimized the window. I could talk to this guy. Tell him why what he did was wrong, and Tour would never have to even think about him. Wait. how did he even know i had Tour? I pulled the e-mail back up, typing out a reply. You know what, fuck this guy, i’m not even gonna bother typing in Japanese.

 

I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.

 

Hitting send, i began on my homework. However, it wasn’t long before a glance showed that i had a new e-mail. The previous owner had already replied, this time in perfect English, and with several photo attachments.

 

Is this not you? I paid for the bitty, and so I want him back. You are an exchange student, yes? You could get in trouble with both Universities for stealing someone’s pet.

 

Oh man. This guy was a jerk! My panic was quickly replaced with rage as i looked at the pictures he was using against us, pictures taken by strangers and put on their instagram where Tour and I were nervous or smiling, but happy together. Doing things together. He wasn’t a pet. He was my friend! I furiously typed back.

 

You purchased him from an illegal breeder, and i have already made arrangements with Cry’s Associated Adoption Centers to have his papers made up in my name. He is a person, not a pet, and he has told me that you did not treat him properly. So I would appreciate if you would leave us alone.

 

Yeah, take that, jerk!

 

Tomorrow i will inform your school of your misdeeds.

 

The color drained from my face. B-but this was nothing to worry about! I was in the right, and if he did tell the school, i would just explain myself. Yeah. nothing to worry about. I closed the laptop.

 

**Stripes always left tabs open. It was like she was afraid to close them, that she would need them later or something. I knew she hoarded weird things like action figures, metal scraps, and toilet paper rolls, but web browser tabs? I shook my head, smiling. My human sure was a weird one. I loved her. There was a new science fiction anime i wanted to watch, so i almost ignored the emails until i saw them mention bitties. Me, specifically. At first i thought it might just be more stuff regarding adoption, but i quickly realized what it really was.**

 

**My old owner.**

 

**The one who bought me from the factory.**

 

**The one who wanted to ‘modify’ me to stop having heats.**

 

**There was no way i was letting him take me back. But… i didn’t want him threatening stripes. Making my family feel unsafe. No, i couldnt just let that happen. A quick glance showed that stripes was still downstairs makin dinner, and since it was a curry day, she would be there for at least another hour. Long enough for me to pull up google maps and see exactly how far we were from where my old owner lived. I ran around the desk, collecting papers and a pen and taking notes on how to get there. There was no way stripes would take me, so i had to do it alone. I wrote her a note and stepped outside onto the sixth floor balcony. It was a long way down, but i had a bag packed, one of the ones she had sewn for me, with snacks to replenish magic for the many shortcuts i would be taking.**

 

**“be back soon, stripes,” i mumbled to myself before beginning my journey.**

 

**I would not let this man hurt my human.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're getting close to the end! when this is finished there may be a sequel someday, after i have settled in america, but dont count on seeing it for a while since i want to focus on my Homes After the Mountain series.
> 
> help Tour and I pay for our plane tickets back to America?  
> https://ko-fi.com/stripesnbooks
> 
> have questions? this blog focuses on my other works, but i'll talk about anything!  
> https://homesafterthemountain.tumblr.com/
> 
> next chapter: Tour, how could you just... leave like that?


	13. たいせつなひと - Important Person

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i get him back.

No. no no no no nO NO NONONONO. I couldn’t breathe. SHIT. i couldn’t breathe! I managed not to drop the food, setting it on the desk before collapsing to the floor and heaving comically large and ineffective breaths. Tour was gone. He was going to ‘have a talk with his past owner’, whatever that meant. He ended the note saying he would be back soon.

 

Fucking liar.

 

Fucking liar! How was he supposed to know when he would be back! This guy would probably keep him locked up! How would he get back if he just walked alone to some guy’s apartment in Hiroshima alone, with no backup? Did he even have a plan? I thought he realized how bad humans could be! He… well, now i was crying. I didn’t want to lose him. Couldn’t. Well, i could. I could just trust that he would come back,trust that this guy would let him go after their ‘talk’. I could wait. It would be so easy, and i wanted so badly to do it. To not have to go outside, to a place conveniently left open in a tab of google maps. I could stay home and avoid the social interactiong, confrontation that was sure to come. I could trust that Tour had this all under control. I was built for passive endurance, not this action crap.

 

Heh. but i knew better than to trust anyone like that. I pulled out my phone and plugged in the address, making sure it matched up with what was shown on the tab Tour must have left open. When i stood, the information plugged into my phone and triple checked, my legs shook.

 

And then they gave out as soon as i took a step.

 

“For the love of-” i cut myself off, taking a deep breath. My leg issues had been pretty dormant with the medicine i took, but i had forgotten how badly they acted up when i was stressed. Which was great. Any time i got too stressed, i couldn’t walk, which just made my life absolutely not a living hell. Staying on my knees, i crawled around and gathered everything else. My portable wifi, my charger, my headphones, my bike keys., and after a short debate, my scissors went into the bag. I took a deep breath and stood again, my legs supporting me with only some pain. I grabbed my cane from where it had sat, unused, in the closet for the past months. It felt like both an old friend and a mocking reminder of my own disability. In a way, i preferred using the wheelchair, but that had been too large to bring to Japan.

 

I tried not to stomp as i made my way out the door, down the elevator, and out onto the streets, running on pure rage. I almost started speed-walking before i remembered my bike. Faster, and it kept my weight off of my legs. I unlocked it and took another look at google maps before putting on my headphones for directions and taking off.i was running on pure rage as i wove between the late afternoon pedestrians of Hiroshima prefecture. I had to stay angry; it was the only way to keep from slipping into another panic attack. My legs burned as i followed the directions from my phone, getting anxious at every stop light.

 

Finally, after probably twenty minutes of frantic biking, i arrived at a fancy apartment building. The glass and chrome structure stretched high above me, appearing more like a fortress than anything else to me in that moment. Okay. first hurdle. The entry was locked and required a password. I stared blankly at the keypad. I could always just go home, drown my sorrows in ice cream… no! That wasn’t an option! Not even a little! I walked back to the front of the building and leaned against it, looking over the e-mails from the guy for any clues i might have missed. Well, it had his name… it looked like a company email, with the company address and position… agh, even if i got in i don't know what his apartment number is! Okay, okay, don't panic.

 

I looked around again and found the mailboxes. Okay, now to just match up the kanji in his name to one of the mailboxes, then i’ll know where he lives! Just as i found and wrote down the number, someone else approached and opened their own mailbox. I watched as they took out their mail, stare at me for a second, and then move to enter the building. I followed behind, trying and failing to look casual and i stepped right behind them and into the building, using my cane to catch the door before it closed. I took a moment as the person i followed in walked out of sight, taking a deep breath. Okay. i can do this. Get Tour and get out. I let my rage boil up again, drowning out my fear and anxiety, and got in the elevator.

  
  
  


**Being a bitty only really becomes annoying when youre trying to get somewhere by yourself. I managed to hop on a tram to get partway, and blip out of sight whenever i attracted too much attention, but it was still a good hour until i got to where i needed to be. And that was just at the building itself. Now i needed to get up to the third floor and into the apartment so i could give this guy a piece of my mind. Tell him i wasn’t going to ever live with him, tell him to stop bothering my human. If necessary, remind him that bitties are m o n s t e r s.**

 

**I needed to keep stripes safe. The building was a giant monolith of glass and metal, designed to make life as difficult as possible for bitties. I stayed in the corners, not out of sight, but out of notice, and made my way to the doors. Thank stars they were glass, so i could see and port inside. I collapsed as soon as i got in, duckin into a corner and opening my tiny bag. Paperclips, loose change… aha! Candy bar. ‘Fun size’, heh. I took a bite to replenish the magic i had used to get this far. It did the trick, the same way soda staves off dehydration. I really should bring up buying monster food when we get back to a place that has it more readily available.**

 

**Snack finished, i glanced at the space around me. Elevator or stairs. Elevator would be faster, if i had something to throw at the buttons. Without, you know, breaking them. Man, i really should have planned better when packing this bag. The change would work pretty well mass-wise, but if i messed up on the angle i could just end up with a coin stuck in the middle of a broken plastic button. Come on, paperclips, broken crayon, spare shirt, candy wrapper… well, maybe… i took a few coins and wrapped them in the candy bar wrapper. That should dull any edges enough! I used my magic to throw it at the button, and waited an eternity for the doors to open. Thank stars there weren’t any humans in there. I quickly ran in, careful of the ominous gap between the contraption and the column that housed it, and once more used my candy-coins to hit the button for the right floor. The elevator music was some calming instrumental piece, something stripes would have called boring. I missed her already. How could i miss her so much after such a short time? This was nothing compared to when she had class. And yet… it felt different. I wish this jerk had never e-mailed her, just left us alone, and then i could just be relaxing in my room, playing video games or napping on my human.**

 

**I would just have to hurry up and get back as soon as possible.**

 

**Finally the doors opened and i jumped out into the hall on the right floor. I wasn’t exactly sure of the room number, but i think i remembered. Worst case scenario, i just pop into a couple rooms. I might be able to recognize his soul… if he’s home. Damn, didn’t think about what i’d do if he wasn’t. But then, as i walked through the halls, i heard yelling. And it sounded like… stripes. But thats impossible. Why would my human be here? But then, i felt her soul. And her soul was screaming.**

  
  
  


I shifted awkwardly as the door opened to reveal the man who was trying to take Tour away. I did my best to square my shoulders and look intimidating.

 

“I-I’m here to get my bitty.” My voice came out quieter than i wanted it to. His blank stare did not encourage me. “私のbittyはここに来ました。” (my bitty came here).

 

The man raised an eyebrow. “No bitties have come here.” he looked very much like he wanted to close the door in my face.

 

I needed to get in. make sure he wasn’t lying. And, as much as i wanted to run away, maybe i could talk him down from attacking us, and get him to leave us alone. “Can I come in and talk to you?” reluctantly he stepped aside, and i took my shoes off at the door, leaning heavily on my cane as i went, more so than really necessary. I knew the power of pity, and i wasn't afraid to use it. He directed me to his minimalist sitting room, which held only simple furniture and some posters of video games and anime. Probably an otaku then. Seemed he could afford the hobby. I kept an eye out for any sign of captive bitties as i took a seat. There was a long moment of uncomfortable silence.

 

I finally gathered the courage to speak again. “Tour- the bitty- doesn’t want to live with you. He wants to live with me. Please leave us alone.”

 

He had opted to remain standing, but i did my best not to be intimidated. “I paid for him.”

 

“He’s a person, not a thing!” i yelled. “And you were neglecting him! You don’t even seem to know anything about bitties! You bought him from an illegal breeder.”

 

He stiffened. “I had no reason to believe it was illegal.”

 

I was secretly glad his english was so good. “Well now i have all his paperwork! You can’t take him away! And i won’t let you!” i stood up, and pointed my cane at him like a weapon. He took a step back. “And if i find out you lied to me, that he is here, or that you hurt him… maybe you know american’s reputations for being violent. I WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE A LIVING HELL FOR THE LAST SECONDS YOU BREATHE ON THIS EARTH.”

 

Suddenly there was the sound of a door slamming open, and in seconds, a small bitty stood before us, left eye flaming and looking around wildly until his gaze landed on me.

 

“... Tour?” he… i got here before him? I resisted the urge to slap my forehead. Of course i did! I was a human on a bike, and he was a tiny skeleton who couldn’t get around as easily.

 

“stripes. you okay?” his eye still flaming, he took a few blips to land on my shoulder, where i cupped him in one hand and nuzzled him against my cheek.

 

“Yeah, i’m fine. I was so worried when you left! I can’t believe i got here before you! Well, i can, but…” i turned my attention back to the stunned man in front of us. “Oh. yeah. S-so! I-i’m going to leave now. Please don’t contact us again!” he nodded dumbly. Was… was that it? That easy?

 

“hey, pal,” Tour spoke to him this time. “If you try to mess with my human again, i’ll show you a really bad time.” the bitty winked, his eyes now normal.

 

“Y-yes. I’ll leave you alone. You two… are very close.”

 

Yes. we are.

 

We were scared the rest of that week, worried about cops or the school barging in and arresting me or kicking us out of the dorms, but nothing happened. My anxiety still spiked whenever i heard voices in the hallway, or saw police around town. But Tour kept me calm, distracted me to keep me from any panic attacks, and all in all just comforted me. With only a week and a half of school left and the plane tickets ordered, the paperwork finalized, and things going well, we studied together for tests and planned what to pack and what to mail home. Things were okay. Things were peaceful. I went to sleep every night next to a tiny monster that i loved very much. And he loved me too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just a couple weeks til i go home to america! im so ready to see all my friends and finish my last year of college! things havent been smooth sailing, and i think im going to fail one of my classes here, which is sad but shouldnt set me back. im at my maximum student loans thanks to my major change and extra years in college, so i gotta pay for the last year up front. i can do it, but things will be tight. especially with maying for my various medications and sticking to my promise to not eat any more moldy or bad foods. my laptop is broken but still useable. pieces keep falling off and i dont know how important they are? i really hope i can find an insurance policy; i cant check while im in japan.
> 
> but i hope you guys enjoy reading this as much as i enjoy writing it. the last chapters are all fluff! i love you, and i hope youre hanging in there!
> 
> if you can spare some change, buy me a kofi?  
> https://ko-fi.com/stripesnbooks
> 
> if you wanna learn about my other works involving a huge undertale multiverse, check out my tumblr  
> https://homesafterthemountain.tumblr.com/


	14. にもつ - Luggage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this is basically me live-blogging my actual packing experience. 
> 
> dont panic, i changed the name of the fic from stripes bitty drabbles to a tour of my heart.

Tour looked me in the eye. “stripes.” 

 

I found my gaze shifting, unwilling to meet his stare. “Yeah?”

 

He sighed. “i mean, i’m not the neatest of bitties-”

 

“I think you’re pretty neat!” i finger gunned at him, but it did not distract him long enough.

 

“-but we’re leaving in less than two weeks and i can hardly see the floor. we’re going to have to pack all this,s o we should probably get started.”

 

“It’s not that bad!” i whined.

 

“before noon, you stepped on the hooks of a bra, two stuffed animals, a charge chord, and a spoon.”

 

Okay, maybe it was pretty bad. Between neither of us really wanting to clean, things tended to pile up. I went on a cleaning/organizing spree every other month or so, but it took three days to get bad again. Dirty dishes were piled next to the laptop, the cleaning put off until i absolutely had to. Trash was mostly in the appropriate bins, but there were candy wrappers scattered about the floor. Clean laundry sat in the hamper, unfolded, while the rest lay n piles around the floor. Trash and laundry were even worse than usual, as i had been underestimating how much the ‘cleaning fairy’ had been helping while i was at school, and after what Tour and i had been through recently, combined with the upcoming final exams and presentations, things had gotten pretty out of hand. 

 

“Alright, point made, let’s do some cleaning after i shower. If you wanna get started with laundry or trash, feel free.”

 

He grinned encouragingly at me. “that’s the spirit. we can even listen to some podcasts. we were falling behind in the adventure zone, anyway.”

 

“You are seriously amazing,” i told him, giving his skull a little kiss. He nuzzled against my face for a second before getting some music started for his head start on the cleaning.

 

One shower and a few minutes later, the laundry had been rearranged. The clean laundry now sat in the drawers (but really, who has time for folding), and the dirty laundry was in the hamper. The floor was now over fifty percent clear, according to Tour, and i called him a nerd for using percentages. But we had hit a small hitch.

 

“...it’s stuck.”

 

“What! Even your tiny hands can’t get it?!” i watched from the sidelines as Tour failed to get my jacket unstuck from the swivel chair.

 

“yeah. It’s kind of impressive how stuck it is. might have to get the RA or something.”

 

I groaned. I really like that jacket, and was not intent on ripping it in a hasty attempt to get it unstuck. How does something even get stuck in a swivel chair?! And on the seat, not even the wheels or anything! “Okay, since we have no idea how it even got stuck there, i’m gonna try sitting in the chair and messing with the height and backrest from there. Can you try to watch and see if it gets looser?”

 

Tour nodded and i navigated to sit on the chair without sitting on the bitty. After some fiddling with the height lever, i leaned gently against the back. “Tour, any-”

 

“hah!” i felt him fall back against me. “it came out when you leaned back!”

 

“Awesome! The jacket is saved!”

 

“Into the hamper, or hang it up?”

 

“Hang it for now.” he let me take the lead on that, and i put the jacket on a hook by the door. Just across from the hooks, out of the corner of my eye i saw the nook that held the shoe rack and the space where, for the last eleven months, your travel bags sat. “Hm. i think we should start packing the suitcases.”

 

Tour blipped to my shoulder. “I only see one suitcase there.”

 

I grinned. “Check this out.” i pulled the cases down, jostling the bitty on my shoulder, and brought the bags to the mostly-clear floor. I opened the suitcase to reveal… a matching, slightly smaller suitcase. “But wait, there’s more!” i said dramatically. I opened that suitcase to reveal an even smaller matching bag, and then once more, giving us a total of four bags.

 

Tour chuckled. “alright, so that’s more than one suitcase. how are we gonna pack ‘em?”

 

“We can do the electronics and some of the carry on stuff first. Then some manga and stuffed animals, and then the clothes i’m not wearing…”

 

“... is there gonna be enough room for my stuff?” i turn my head to see Tour fidgeting nervously. Is he… still concerned about being a burden?

 

I smile at him. “Of course! You’re a bitty, for goodness sakes, all your stuff is small to begin with. Plus… one of these was in the other when i came here. Meaning there's one more suitcase to work with then when i first came to Japan!”

 

“all right, then electronics go in here first-”

 

“Wait, you can’t put the systems in til they’re fully charged!”

 

“... do you seriously have three versions of the nintendo ds?”

 

“... Fou, my lite is at home, and that's the dsi, and the 3ds, and there’s region lock so i needed one in Japanese…” he laughed at me as we finished packing as much of that suitcase as we could. For the next one we started packing books and clothes, especially my winter boots that i hadn't worn in months. I showed him how to use dresses and socks as padding for the delicate paperback manga. “Uuugh,” i found myself complainin as we finished up the second suitcase, “my back hurts from moving these around..”

 

Tour frowned. “you complain about your back a lot. Should we see a chiropractor before we leave?”

 

“I dunno. Sorry, i’m just a mess of a human.”

 

He smiled gently. “you’re my mess of a human. a hu-mess.”

 

I snorted. “That one was lame.”

 

“you wouldn’t have me any other way.”

 

“That is one hundred percent true.” i scooped him up for a hug and nuzzle, before placing him back on the desk. “Alright, let’s get started on the next one.”

 

We ended up having to take a break, exhausted and in need of some sleep and cuddles.

 

The next day, after class, we began on the third one. The bottom was lined with dresses, and then toys and other sundries. I don’t know why i thought i’d have a chance to wear this fancy strapless dress while studying abroad. Coats and more clothes were piled on top. Tour pointed out that i left a couple dresses in the closet, and I told him it was for the ending ceremony. We piled books on top of the jackets, to squish the air out as we worked to zip it up.

 

“... i can’t zip it.” we had been filling up each piece of luggage before taking it out of the matryoshka-style setup, but this one was too close. “I have to take it out to zip it up.”

 

“that, um, sounds a little dangerous with the bottom unzipped.”

 

“I got ths, i’ll just grab here, and there's a handle somewhere in here…” i gave a great heave, in a position that a professional body builder would probably disapprove of.

 

“ah, it’s falling!” tour called out as i awkwardly tried to waddle the suitcase to a bare space of floor. A couple books were slipping, but my talented bitty caught them quickly so they didn’t squish my delicate human toes.

 

“Thanks,” i grunted as i dropped the bag mostly on the floor, partially on the lid of the last and largest suitcase. I stood up, panting. “I think maybe save the rest for tomorrow.”

 

I finished a presentation the next day, leaving only one more final exam next week. In seven days, we would get on a plane back to America. I checked and re-checked the ticket information, making sure they couldn’t somehow snatch Tour away at the last minute. The few times we had recently gone outside, i kept him close, turning my body so the fewest people possible could see him.

 

We didn’t let people take pictures anymore.

 

But hopefully when we got home, some of the fear that had settled in our Souls would abate, and we could enjoy our time together. Next year would be my last year of college before graduation, if all went well. I was excited.

 

“Okay, so today we do dishes and pack everything we don’t need for this last week!” i proclaimed. “That way we can see if there's anything that wont fit, that we’ll have to ship.”

 

“ _dishes_ a good plan.” Tour gave me a lazy thumbs up. “should i be doing anything here while you’re in the kitchen?”

 

“I’m sure i could _cook_ up something for you to do,” i said with a smile. Maybe get some of the stuff off the high shelves? Especially stuff for your room.”

 

“oh yeah. We might as well pack all that stuff up, since i usually sleep with you anyway. heh, the bed has more _room_ than the cubby.”

 

I rolled my eyes at his punnery, loading the dirty dishes into bags. And maybe i snuck in a few ingredients for cookies. I still had a bunch of flour and sugar, so i had planned to make cookies before cleaning the dishes, and surprise my bitty friend. It was a simple recipe, mix everything together and then bake it, so i managed to do all the dishes in between pulling out batches of finished cookies. Less than an hour later, i was back in the room with clean dishes and fresh cookies.

 

“Tour, i made cookies!” i tirely announced. Between the cookies and dishes, it had worn me… to the bone. I needed to rest for a bit. I put the cookies on the desk and all but dropped the plastic bags of clean dishes to the floor.

 

“oh, nice!” he stood up, and i saw that he had pulled down his ‘bed’, the pink scarf sticking out of the box in which it sat. “i got down most of the stuff from the cubby.” we both spent a minute looking at the items. The things he used most were his bed and the game systems, but he had even used his bed less and less as our lines regarding personal space had been blurred and he ended up in the laundry or on my bed. Looking at the box-bed was sort of… nostalgic.

 

“You’ve been living with me for about… four months now?” i asked, collapsing onto the bed.

 

“yep. heh, time flies. especially when you have to _wing_ it as much as we do.” he grinned at me cheekily, and i retaliated by picking him up for another hug.

 

“I’m really happy i met you,” i whispered.

 

“yeah. me too,” he whispered back.

 

“Well!” i released my captive. “Let’s get this packing finished up!”

 

We wrapped fancy glasses in t-shirts, and arranged the last of the books so their weight would help to flatten stuffed animals. We sorted through which kitchen stuff to bring home, and what to leave for the next person who needed them.

 

And we did it all together, smiling and laughing.

 

bonus pictures:

 [Tour helping me pack](https://homesafterthemountain.tumblr.com/post/176402236315/my-bitty-tour-helping-me-pack)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're close to wrapping this up, with one more chapter and an authors note planned. thank you guys for coming on this journey with me! i love you, and remember to treasure your friends and family. pick someone and remind them that you love them today.
> 
> help pay for my last year of college?  
> https://ko-fi.com/stripesnbooks
> 
> check out my tumblr! its main focus is on my homes after the mountain collection, but it also features art and bonus content, and attempts to get you guys involved in my stories.  
> https://homesafterthemountain.tumblr.com/


	15. ただいま - I'm Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> we go home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, it sure has been a long while, hasn't it? but here it is. the last chapter. basically exactly what happened to me on my own journey home lol.
> 
> i'm back in america now, and it's not great, but i'm trying. my laptop broke, i got caught up in a friends wedding, and i missed a bunch of class that i now have to make up. oof. but im here. im home.
> 
> if you wanna help me get groceries...  
> https://ko-fi.com/stripesnbooks
> 
> come check out other things i do! ask tour questions!  
> https://homesafterthemountain.tumblr.com/

It was a good thing we left for the airport three hours early.

 

“I’m so sorry!” i said again, on the verge of tears.

 

“No, i’m sorry!” my friend parroted back, “it’s ninety-five percent my fault!”

 

“No, i’m at least one-third responsible! It just looked a bit different from what i’m used to!”

 

We were on the highway, and one of my friends from class was driving us to our first airport. We would take three planes to get back, one to Tokyo, one to Texas, and then a final one back to my hometown. That is, if we made it there in time. According to the GPS, we would arrive with only half an hour to spare, where the plan had been two hours, at least. That’s what happens when you miss the exit on a Japanese highway. Why were the exits so far apart?!

 

“hey, it’s okay. i think you really drove the point home. we’ll get there with plenty of time,” Tour reassured me. He was getting really good at noticing my anxiety spikes, and even better at calming them. Even if i logically knew it was going to be fine, having him there to say it out loud was nice. I twirled my cane nervously.

 

We finally reached the airport and dragged the heavy luggage through checkout, paying for the extra baggage up front. I got a lot of looks because of Tour, but I satisfied them with the paperwork i had printed out beforehand and the bitty seat. The bitty seat was designed to attach to a seatbelt so that your bitty can sit with you on the plane safely. They’re not allowed to get out during flight, but at least they weren’t forced to the luggage compartments. I bid goodbye to my friend, and Tour shook his hand (finger). Then we hopped on the plane.

 

The flight to Tokyo was only a couple hours. Tour didn’t really like his seat, but tried to pun it off instead of complain. In Tokyo we had to take our bags to another airport for the flight to Texas. Tour helped me find some people who could carry my heavy things and comforted me on the two hour long bus ride between airports, where i mostly napped. We made it to the other plane just in time, and began the 12 hour flight. 

 

After the first hour, Tour was really hating the glorified car seat.

 

“hey stripes, the seatbelt sign is off. can i nap in your carry on bag?”

 

I glanced nervously at the aisle, where flight attendants wandered around, serving drinks and checking that the overhead compartments were still properly closed. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. We could get in trouble.”

 

He gave a far too confident grin. “nah, it’ll be fine. if it makes you feel better, hold something to cover the empty seat. come on, if i have to sit here any longer, my bones will melt into the seat.”

 

I sent him a stern glare. “That’s not something that actually happen, is it?”

 

“is that a chance you’re willing to take?” one brow-bone raised in challenge. 

 

I sighed, knowing that he would be fine, but… i didn’t like being stuck in my seat for that long either. “Aright, but if the seatbelt sign comes on you’re going right back in your chair,” i said as i unbuckled the mechanism.

  
  
  


**Finally! Freedom! Well, relatively speaking. I gave stripe’s hand a quick hug as she opened up her bag to the pocket that held the soft knitted blanket she was working on. I hopped inside and she zipped it mostly closed, with just a small space open that i could easily pull wider if i needed to. I pulled out the bag of candy left over from the last flight meal and opened it up to snack on now that i was safely in this fluffy haven. It was easy to fall asleep here.**

 

**I only woke up when stripes warned me that she was getting up for the restroom. I gave her a nod of understanding and she covered my empty chair. Being awake, i went to check on how much candy was left, but couldn’t find the package. Not behind me. Couldn’t have fallen out. Not on my lap. Finally i saw it wedged into the side of the bag, in a bunch of the yarn. Must have gotten stuck in there while i slept. I crawled over to the bag and pulled at it. But the corners had gotten caught up in the blanket. I gave a few hard tugs, and finally it popped out! Unfortunately, a ball of yarn popped out with it. And stripes had left the bag too far open. I watched in horror as the ball of yarn rolled out of the bag, bounced on the floor of the plane, and rolled away. Ooooh, man. Stripes was gonna be so upset. I could still see the ball of yarn just under the seat, so i pulled at the string hanging out of the bag to try and bring it back. But of course it just unraveled more and rolled farther away, out of sight. Well. obviously i had to go get it back. Taking shortcuts was dangerous business in a moving object, so i crawled out of the bag and lowered myself down the hanging string of fluffy yarn. It felt… weird, to walk in a plane. Hard to describe, but something about it just felt off. Probably the same thing on boats, not being on solid ground or something. I did a quick check to make sure no one could see me, but froze.**

 

**A kid was staring at me.**

 

**Unsure of what i should do, i waved at him. He waved back. I slowly turned to chase after the ball of yarn. The kid started screaming.**

 

**“Mamaaaaaa!!!! Mamaaaaa!!!”**

 

**Ah shit, the kid was still looking and now pointing at me. I ducked under the chair. I’d just move fast. Hopefully stripes took a while in the restroom. The floor was miraculously clean, so i just had to dodge the eyes and feet of sleepy passengers that had been in the air for over six hours. I could hear the kid’s mother calming him, but some of the other humans were starting to wake up from his crying. I followed the trail of yarn around someone’s bag, under someone’s shoe (that would have to be taken care of later…) and under two more rows of seats. Luckily the ball of yarn was small enough to pick up easily, and i began to wind it back up. People were starting to quiet down. I could make it back in time. But then i reached the shoe. Hm. i couldn’t move this foot. So instead i tried to tug the yarn out from under it. Im not sure why i thought it was a great idea; i guess i just hoped that it wasn’t firmly on the ground, but it didn't work. So there was only one choice. I had to try and move the foot this shoe was attached to, despite the risks. I carefully lifted up the toe of the sneaker.**

 

**“Um, what are you doing?”**

 

**Shit. i turned to look up at a young human. It was a young woman, probably mixed race, who was looking down at me quizzically. “hey, uh, morning?” i pointed to the ball of yarn in my arms and at the yarn trapped under her shoe, sweating a little. “i, uh, dropped some yarn. ya mind lifting your foot for a sec?”**

 

**Looking somewhat bewildered, she complied, and i pulled the yarn and wrapped it around the ball. She opened her mouth to speak, but i just thanked her and ran back as quickly as I could. Stripes arrived just as I was crawling back into the bag.**

 

**Her eyes widened immediately. “be careful! Someone could see you!” she moved her legs to block any view of me from the side as i climbed back in.**

 

**“sorry,” I said. “the yarn fell out, so I was just bringing it back while you were tied up at the bathroom.”**

 

**She rolled her eyes, but I could see her smile. I loved my human. I'd chase after those craft supplies any day to see that smile.**

 

**“As long as you're safe, I guess it's fine. Now, pass me the games from that pocket. There's still several hours of flight time.”**

  
  
  


We arrived early at the Texas airport, according to the captain. We're weren't home yet, but we were back in the country. There was over an hour and a half till our next flight, so maybe after check in there would be time to get some American snacks with Tour! Most went as good as the ones in Japan, but the was at least one I was craving. Cheetos. I told my bitty as much while making sure he was secure in his seat, and he seemed plenty enthusiastic to try new things. So we waited for the plane to dock. 

 

And waited. 

 

“sorry folks,” came the captain's voice over the intercom, “but it looks like there's no room to dock yet, so it'll be a few more minutes.”

 

Arriving ten minutes early turned into leaving the plane thirty minutes late. Welcome back to America, me. 

 

Tour seemed happy enough just to be back on my shoulder, but picked up on my anxiety. “hey, we still have an hour,” he said. “check in with customs, get luggage moved over, and then get on the plane, right?”

 

I nodded, leaning on the cane as we exited the plane, my free hand reaching up to stroke my bitty. He indulgently took my fingers in his own small hands, giving a reassuring squeeze. We finally made it into the airport, following the other passengers that were similarly unhappy with the holdup. Others came out of neighboring planes, and the crowd of people heading the same way grew. And grew. And when we reached customs, I felt like crying. There had to be hundreds of people in a single line, waiting to use the machines that would scan their passport and welcome them into the country. The line took up the entire room and the hallways beyond, with not a single airport worker in sight. 

 

“Is it too late to just go back to Japan?” I whined quietly. My legs hurt just looking at the intimidating line as i joined it. 

 

“hey, we're almost there,” Tour said. “one more flight. hey! airport person!”

 

I turned and saw that the was, indeed, a single worker taking care of the line. Hearing my bitty and swerving to look for the source of the voice, his third gaze came to rest on me. 

 

“Um, can I get a wheelchair?” i asked, wanting my cane pointedly. 

 

“Hm, wait here, I'll look.” he took off in another direction, although I could see him stopping every now and then as passengers seemed about the line time. But I was relieved that at least I'd be able to sit through most of it, once the wheelchair got here. 

 

But I found myself waiting, moved up almost a hundred feet (maybe one tenth of the line) ten minutes later, and still no chair. Your ears missing darkly in my ear. 

 

“can't they see that you're in pain? where'd that guy go?” he seemed about as upset as I was, especially with the pain increasing both from standing so long and the stress of the whole thing. 

 

From inside the line, I saw another worker and called out. “Excuse me!” he looked over. “Can I get a wheelchair, please?”

 

He looked at my position in line, behind the dividers. “You should've asked earlier,” he said, shaking his head. “You'd have to get out of line and rejoin it after.”

 

Really?! They couldn't even bring a disabled person a wheelchair? What kind of country was this? “Fine,” I snapped, “it's just pain, I guess. I'm used to pain.” i pointedly turned away, eyes brimming with tears. I didn't want to be in pain. Tour growled in my ear, and I didn't have the energy to try and calm him. The worker vanished as suddenly as he appeared, and we were once more surrounded by griping passengers. No one was happy. 

 

It took an hour to get through customs, even with an employee meeting me skip the last tenth of the line when they recognized that I was disabled. We rushed to baggage claims, finding someone to help me load and carry everything to get it on the next flight. The airport was clearly severely understaffed, and that made me angry. There were so many people that needed help, not just me! Tour grumbled about it too as we took our ticket and ran to the gates. It was three minutes till the flight was scheduled to leave. We weren't going to make it. I lost all steam, slowing to a near stop as we entered the gate area. There was no way. Maybe we'd never get home. Forever trapped in an airport where no one could even provide a dumb wheelchair. 

 

“hey, it's gonna be okay.” I snapped it off my downward spiral as Tour tugged on an earring. “let's just ask those people about the plane, and they can tell us whether we can make it or where to go to fix it. we got this. we're almost there, right?”

 

“Right.” I stood up straighter and took a deep breath. I couldn't fall apart just because of a little culture shock. I suppose over to the desk where the two ladies working the looked even less enthusiastic about their day than I did. Well, if you ignored my tear tracks and still red eyes. But, by some miracle, they informed me that my flight was running an hour late and I still had plenty of time to make it. “Yes!” i called out triumphantly as i turned towards the right gate, laughing a little manically. “I don't know about you, but I'm already exhausted. I'm glad we don't have to try and book a new flight on top of that.”

 

“glad the news was able to  _ lift _ your spirits.” His wink was almost audible. I rolled my eyes. “just wait till we actually get on the plane. I bet you'll be on  _ cloud nine _ .”

 

“Tour!” my laugh was much more heartfelt this time as I leisurely made my way to the seating area. My legs were sore and tired, so going at any speed faster than a nice meander was out of the question. As we passed by the bathrooms, I looked between my luggage and the doors. I did kind of have to go… “You think you could watch the bags while I use the restroom?”

 

“Hey, are you okay?”

 

I turned to find a concerned looking airline employee next to a woman in a wheelchair just outside the bathrooms. I gave them a tired smile. “As much as I can be.”

 

He looked me over once. “Do you want a lift?” at my weak protests that I didn't really need help, that I could make it to the gate on my own, he just shook his head. “I didn't ask if you needed it. Do you want one? I use a cane outside if work myself, and you look like you've had a rough day, sooo…”

 

Tears pricked at the corner of my eyes, but i didn’t even care at this point. This trip was so stressful, and i was so tred… “..yes. Yes, please. I’m so tired, and they couldn’t give me a wheelchair, and my plane was late, and…” i cut myself off, taking a deep breath. The man surprised me with a hug, but backed off when Tour growled at him.

 

“Oh, you have a bitty!” he said. “Well, my name is Jake. nice to meet you both. Here, i’ll call for a chair.”

 

“Thank you,” i said, propping up my suitcase and moving Tour off my shoulder. “I’m just gonna use the restroom real quick. Tour, watch the stuff, please?”

 

“always pushing your baggage onto me,” the bitty joked. I just rolled my eyes.

 

**I didn’t like this guy. At first i was just happy that someone wanted to help my human, but who said he could hug her? She played it off well enough, but she doesn’t like physical contact with strangers. Especially if they initiate it. But he didn’t apologize or ask permission or anything, and it just rubbed me the wrong way.**

 

**“So,” Jake started, “what’s wrong with her legs? Not trying to pry!” he clarified, “i just want to make sure she gets the right help.”**

 

**Well, i can’t exactly fault him for that. “... they’re really weak, and she has low stamina. used up all her energy in the hour-long customs line.”**

 

**He frowned. “Someone should have helped.”**

 

**My smile tightened. “... i couldn’t agree more.”**

 

**When stripes finally came out, someone had brought a nice wheelchair and taken away the other woman in a chair, who seemed to be asleep. Jake tried to pick me up off the luggage to load it up, but i wasn’t too keen on having him touch me, so i just shortcutted to the arm of the chair and let him finagle the bags onto the carrying compartments. Stripes thanked him and was genuinely relieved when she sat down; i could see her muscles relax and her hands unclench. I blipped over to her shoulder and whispered in her ear.**

 

**“you hanging in there?”**

 

**She smiled at me and gave me a little kiss, making me blush. Dunno if i’ll ever get used to such easy affection. “Yeah. this is the last flight, after all. My parents and best friends are gonna be there to meet us and take us home. My apartment is gonna be a bit of a mess, but we can clean it up, make a space just for you, make it ours. Really ours.”**

 

**I nodded, scooting close to lean against her neck. “that sounds perfect.”**

 

**“So, where to?” Jake had to interrupt our moment. For the first time in a while, i wished i was as big as the average human, or monster. Then i could push her wheelchair, and we wouldn’t need this guy hanging around. Stripes told him the gate number, and he brought us there, even talking to the flight attendant to make sure we could get to our seat first. I admit, he was being pretty useful, and at least he didn’t try to hug my human again. “What kind of bitty is he?”**

 

**I bristled at that. He could ask me, instead of her. I’m right here. But stripes didn’t seem to notice.**

 

**“He’s a sansy. His name is Tour.” i gave him my fakest smile. “He’s my best friend.” i gave her my most sincere smile. They started talking about video games, and i would interject every now and then.**

 

**“You got a boyfriend waiting for you back home?”**

 

**WHAT ON EARTH PROMPTED HIM TO ASK THAT?! I saw stripes stiffen again. While her polite smile didn’t falter, she stopped making eye contact, instead focusing on her phone screen.**

 

**“Nah.”**

 

**“I’m surprised, a nice girl like you. I wish my wife enjoyed video games this much.” at this, stripes relaxed a bit, but she was still on guard. Good. i didn’t like the way he was speaking.**

 

**“Well, friendship is more important anyway. Even if i don’t date, i have my friends. Like Tour!” the way stripes looked at me could outshine the damn sun. i had found a good human.**

 

**“heh, well, does that make the plane our friend** **_ship_ ** **?” stripes snorted and rolled her eyes, but i was drinking in that smile. “you’re smiling, so it was at least a** **_bitty punny_ ** **.”**

 

**“Tour!” stripes protested, but she had dissolved into giggles. The man, Jake, was laughing too, but i didn’t care. “You’re ridiculous.”**

 

**“Yeah, you sure got a punny one,” Jake shook his head with a grin. “I’ve been thinking about getting a bitty myself someday, but there aren’t many breeders around here.”**

 

**Stripes frowned in thought. “I mean, this is a pretty big city. There’s not an adoption center?”**

 

**“Well, those bitties are there for a reason right?” he said. I saw stripes tense up again, but with his next sentence, i realized why. “They’re broken somehow, or problematic. I’d rather get a new one. Plus, mama cry’s places are always so strict with their adoption procedures. I mean, i know they’re monsters, but they’re pets!”**

 

**My human was shaking in rage. “They’re not pets. They’re people, just like other humans and monsters.”**

 

**“Ah, you’re one of those,” he sighed. “Why do pet shops sell them then? And i mean, your little guy isn’t saying anything.”**

 

**He was right there. I was keeping my mouth shut, because i didn’t want to get my human into trouble, not when we were so close to being done with this trip. “well bud, i know i’m a person, and my human knows i’m a person, and i feel like anything i say will just end up** **_flying_ ** **over your head.”**

 

**“There a lot of issues with today’s laws involving monsters,” stripes said through gritted teeth.**

 

**“I guess.” he shrugged, as if the topic was of minimal relevance to his life. “Oh, it’s about time to board. Look, here’s my card.” he handed her a business card. “Next time you fly with this airline, make sure to sign up for priority seating, you know? And maybe add me on facebook. Be my side-chick on the east coast,” he joked and winked, but she tensed up as he pushed her chair through the plane and helped put up her luggage. She didn’t relax until we were seated and he was gone, with more passengers beginning to board.**

 

That guy was an asshole, and kind of creepy! Add him on facebook, yeah right. I pulled Tour’s seat out of the bag and began to buckle him in. he said nothing and didn’t meet my eyes, appearing lost in thought. “hey Tour, you’re not mad at me for not defending you more, are you? I know i should have, but i didn’t want to start a fight and…”

 

“no, no!” he quickly reassured me. “I was just thinking. but, we're almost there, huh?” he grinned up at me from his weird little bubble seat. “you’re almost home.”

 

“We’re almost home,” i corrected him. “Gosh, i can’t wait for you to meet my friends, and my parents will be there but hopefully they’ll leave quickly, and then we can set up the apartment, and…!” i continued talking as the plane took off.

 

We talked about how to set up the apartment.

 

We talked about what kind of groceries to buy, what flavor of toothpaste to try.

 

About my roommate i would have, and the two other roommates who we didn’t know, and what they might be like.

 

The last two hours seemed to fly by.

 

Heh.

 

The plane landed. It was late in the evening, and i looked out at the navy blue sky as we waited for someone to bring a wheelchair for me and my things. I lifted a hand to the shoulder where Tour sat, giving him a light squeeze. “ただいま。。。" (i’m home). “... Hey, Tour?”

 

I could feel him shift to look at my face. “yeah?”

 

“おかえりなさい。”

 

[W e l c o m e  h o m e]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that's it. the last chapter.  
> ...  
> well, sort of. check out the next 'chapter' for author's notes and to tell me if you want to see more of my adventures!
> 
> if you have a few spare dollars, id appreciate it.  
> https://ko-fi.com/stripesnbooks
> 
> https://homesafterthemountain.tumblr.com/


	16. Author's Note

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> authors note

Hey guys! Thanks for coming on this little adventure with me. Good times, stressful times, happy times, and sad times. I started writin this as I was just etting back into Undertale, while I was studying abroad in Japan. I had discovered the bittybones au on ao3, and thought it was such a cool concept. 

I was feeling really lonely, since almost all my friends were on the opposite side of the planet, and it was hard to communicate with them because of the 14 hour time difference. It was starting to make me really depressed, and despite being on medication, my clinical depression was making a comeback. So I started writing about what I would do if I found a bitty here in Japan, as a way to sort of simulate companionship. And it helped! the character is mostly just me, and many of the chapters are full of things I actually did!

i went shopping in places where you could buy used toys and games, I bought huge quantities of food in order to make many batches of curry, i went to the dollar store all the time, and i didn't get out more than i needed to. but now I could imagine doing it all with someone else!

And then something amazing happened: You!

you read my stories, and left kudos and comments! I felt less and less alone, and began writing more and more of not just this story, but several others. i looked forward to new comments with each chapter i posted, and replied to all of them! so thank you, really, so much! i'm so glad you came here! im so glad you exist! that people who would read my stories exist! i love you all, and im so, so grateful!

 

Now here's the next thing: this was meant to have a defined ending, because i like things with a defined ending. this is the last chapter, and this fic is closed. but, im thinking of making a sequel. i'm back in america, and im on my last year of college. i'm thinking of making a new fic around my last year of college and new complications it brings, with me and Tour helping each other through it all. well, me and Tour and maybe some new people.... and more bitties! if i do a sequel, i have a rough plan for what i would do, and it involves getting more bitties! although i can't say for sure what would happen since i draw inspiration for most chapters from interesting things in my life.

so, do you want more? tell me in the comments! but either way, again, thank you.

and i wish all of you safe journeys home, whether home is a place, a person, a goal. you can make it. Tour and I are cheering you on!


End file.
